In 1515 it was decided to rank the livery companies in order of importance and their position depended on their wealth. Companies incorporated after this were numbered chronologically.
This order of precedence is manifest in events such as the Lord Mayor’s show, the annual procession to welcome in the new mayor.
So, who are the Wax Chandlers?
Think candles and you’d largely be right. The Company’s powers date back to 1484, when King Richard the 3rd issued them with a Royal Charter granting them control over the Wax trade in the City – the wax being beeswax.
They are number twenty in the order of precedence.
What business did the Chandlers regulate?
Candlemaking was certainly a trade regulated by the Company – but only those made from beeswax, candles made from tallow were overseen by the Tallow Chandlers company.
Funerals as well were with the company’s remit and its members included the City’s embalmers.
Members producing candles not made from pure new beeswax could be imprisoned, fined, made to endure a spell in the pillory or even expelled from the Company. The latter sanction meant that they would no longer be allowed to trade in the City.
The importance of purity is echoed in the Company’s coat of arms which features unicorns.
Beeswax was a valuable commodity and was even used as a barter currency.
Aside from candles they also made wax images, wax moulds and seals for documents as well as candles, tapers and torches.
Today the Company is no longer a regulatory body but does support the beekeeping and beeswax industries.
It’s also involved with initiatives with what is called CleanTech – the promotion of sustainable and non-polluting technologies.
They support education charities helping children from poor families, those with language or communication challenges and those with special needs.
Unicorns are found in several City churches including St Benet Paul’s Wharf and St James Garlickhythe. They also appear on the coat of arms of the Wax Chandlers’ livery company.
In heraldry they signify purity.
Belief in Unicorns survived in medieval times.
Here is how to capture one.
As dusk falls, obtain a lady who is a virgin.
Take her into the woods and sit her down against a tree.
Tie her to the tree so she cannot escape and leave her there.
Tip toe back in the middle of the night.
Hopefully you will find a Unicorn resting its head in her lap because she is so pure.
The City’s first Jews arrived in 1066 and England’s Jewish community was to endure what was called Blood Libel.
This was an accusation made against Jews concerning matzahs which is the unleavened bread used in the Passover ceremony which takes place every March or April.
This was an allegation that Christian children were sacrificed and their blood used as an ingredient in the matzahs.
This showed ignorance to begin with as Jewish diet forbids the consumption of blood.
Going a long way from the City the most infamous case took place in a town called Trent in Italy in 1475 when a two year old boy named Simon disappeared. It was rumoured that he’d been taken for a ritual sacrifice. The whole local Jewish community was massacred as a result.
The infant Simon was made into a saint and this led to the cult of Simon of Trent which had followers all across Europe and ascribed hundreds of miracles to him.
It took until 1965 for Simon to be unsainted.
First recorded UK case was in 1144 when an English boy, William of Norwich, was found brutally murdered with strange wounds to his head, arms, and torso. His uncle, a priest, blamed local Jews, and a rumour spread that Jews crucified a Christian child every year at Passover.
More persecution resulted.
The Jews were expelled by Edward 1 in 1290 and remained exiled for almost 400 years until the Lord Protector, Oliver Cromwell, invited them back in the mid 1600s.
This is very trivial and tangential but it does relate to the City and Docklands and is rather fun, albeit a thief of time.
How does it work? It tests your memory or knowledge of London’s public transport.
You type in, one by one, every ‘metro’ station that you can remember. This means Underground, Overground, Docklands Light Railway and Elizabeth Line. Out of town stations such as Reading on the Lizzie Line are included (there’s a free one for you!).
Tramlink and National Rail stations are excluded unless they are metro stations as well.
A map will show which stations you’ve entered. You can move the map around to see the blanks and (maybe) remind you of stations that you have missed. The map is geographic instead of schematic and it’s interesting to see where stations are in relation to each other.
A counter will indicate what percentage of them you’ve so far managed to remember. There are over 500 in total.
Find the quiz at london.metro-memory.com – and don’t blame me if you get engrossed and forget to eat or pick up the children.
You can play it on your phone but laptop or PC is better as you get a better view of the map.
If you don’t finish in one go then you can carry on from where you left off another time. This applies even if you’ve closed your browser or restarted your computer – provided you’ve not cleared cookies in the meantime.
The game will, not unreasonably, ask for a donation from time to time. You can bypass this and carry on or bung in a few quid as the quiz would have involved quite a bit of work.
Aficionados of I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue will, of course, finish at Mornington Crescent.
Test your METRO MEMORY
is one of the oldest boarding schools in England
In 1552, the young King Edward VI responded to an impassioned sermon on the needs of London’s poor, and summoned the preacher, the Bishop of London, to talk more about this pressing situation. It was suggested that Edward should write to the Lord Mayor of London, to set in motion charitable measures to help the poor.
Christ’s Hospital was consequently founded in the old buildings vacated by the Grey Friars in Newgate Street, London and provided food, clothing, lodging and learning for fatherless children and other poor men’s children. The children were not only cared for but prepared for future careers. Money for such reform was raised by the City of London. The Church, businesses and householders in London were asked for donations. Governors were elected to serve the school and in November 1552, Christ’s Hospital opened its doors to 380 pupils. Within a year, the number had increased to over 500.
Many children, including 100 of the first 380, were infants who were sent away to Ware, Hoddesdon (Herts) or Hertford to be looked after by nurses, who were paid a weekly allowance, and to attend local day schools. When they reached 10 they would return to London to be educated.
Girls were admitted from the beginning, and in 1563, when the first children’s register was compiled, there were 132 girls out of 396 children, although the proportion thereafter was usually smaller.
In London, the great majority of children were educated in the Writing School for a position in commerce or trade, leaving when aged 15. The few who stayed on beyond the age of 15 studied either in the Grammar School for University or, from its foundation in 1673, in the Royal Mathematical School (RMS) for service at sea. The RMS received its Royal Charter from Charles II, with Samuel Pepys & Sir Isaac Newton being influential figures in its early years.
CH lost 32 children in the Great Plague of 1665, but did not lose any children to the Great Fire in 1666, although most of the buildings were burned down. With only a few children able to return to the ruined buildings, many were sent out to be billeted in Hertfordshire. In 1682 a site in Hertford was acquired for a self-contained boarding school, which CH was to own for over 300 years.
Thanks to the great generosity of benefactors, the rebuilding of the school in London after the Great Fire was completed in 1705, with Sir Christopher Wren designing the South front as well as Christ Church, the parish church immediately outside the walls of CH, which the school used for its worship. A second major rebuilding took place from 1793 to 1836, including a Grammar School completed in 1793, a new Great Hall in 1829, Grammar and Mathematical Schools in 1834 and the cloisters known as the Grecians Cloister in 1836. .
In 1902 all the boys from both the London and Hertford schools transferred to a new site in Horsham, and the school at Hertford became a girls-only school. In 1985 the Hertford site was closed and the girls transferred to Horsham, once again to form a co-educational school.
Today CH has 830 boarding pupils, with an equal number of boys and girls, and 70 day pupils.
On Tower Hill, about 300 yards north-east of Fenchurch Street station, we find this piece of art nestling in the corner of a 1980s office block. It depicts a meeting of two monks or friars.
Created by sculptor Michael Black, it was installed here when the building was constructed in 1985 and is called “Two Crutched Friars”.
Black, who passed away in 2019, is best known for works in his native Oxford though he has one other piece in the City: a statue of the journalist Paul Reuter which you may find at the back of the Royal Exchange.
Black worked mainly with stone and was known to ply visitors with home made beer.
This work is inspired by the title characters from a book called “Narziss and Goldmund” by the Swiss author Hermann Hesse.
Narziss, on the right, holding a staff and a sack is a teacher.
Goldmund, on the left, with a parchment or scroll, is an artist and sculptor.
If you look above Goldmund, you’ll see that we are at the corner of a street called Crutched Friars.
From the 13th to the 16th century this was the site of an Augustinian Friary belonging to what was known as the Order of the Holy Cross.
Its members were called “crossed” or “crutched” friars because they carried staffs with a crucifix attached.
As mentioned, the piece is called Two Crutched Friars but this is a misnomer. The characters in Hesse’s novel have their story set in Germany and not the medieval City of London.
Let’s look at the statues in detail.
The robes are light brown granite, the same as that used for the walls of the building.
The heads, hands and feet achieve their grey colour from Bardiglio marble.
Scroll and staff are bronze, coated in black paint.
The scroll is said to contain a secret message – but you’ll need to bring a stepladder to find out!
Laid in 1245 this supplied water from springs near Tyburn to the west of the City (where Marble Arch now stands)
The main consumers were brewers, fishmongers and chefs but some private houses also purchased a supply. Households could fill up a bucket for free.
In 1270 when Edward 1 brought his wife, Eleanor of Castille, to London for the first time the Conduit ran, not with water, but wine for all to drink (red and white, reportedly).
The conduit was almost 3 miles long. It comprised pipes which were ten to twenty feet in length. These were made from tree trunks hollowed out with a 6” auger and then shaped at the end to dovetail into each other.
The conduit was lost to the Great Fire of 1666.
Live Music is great but pubs with that modern evil – piped music – are unlikely to get a mention. Sadly this pestilence destroys the atmosphere of many otherwise delightful establishments. If anybody can explain the upside of ones conversation getting drowned out by somebody else’s choice of music then I shall be curious to hear their thoughts.
Crosse Keys, 9 Gracechurch St, EC3V 0DR
8am to 11pm, Monday-Friday; 8:30am to 11pm Saturday; 9:30am to 9pm Sunday.
Spacious atmospheric Wetherspoons pub in a cavernous former banking hall.
There was a coaching inn nearby dating back to the 1500s – also called the Crosse Keys – where some of Shakespeare’s plays were performed.
It is possible that the name derived from the nearby church of St Peter Cornhill – crossed keys being the symbol of St Peter.
Bank or Monument underground.
Dirty Dick’s, Swedeland Court, 202 Bishopsgate, EC2M 4NR
11am to midnight, Monday-Saturday; noon to 11pm, Sunday
I will tolerate the mild piped music and admit this one. A quirky Young’s house with a curious history.
Liverpool Street underground or national rail.
‘Dirty Dick’ (the man himself) is mentioned on my Bishopsgate walk.
Rising Sun, 38 Cloth Fair, Barbican, EC1A 7JQ
Noon to 11pm every day.
A Sam Smiths house and a gem of a proper traditional pub overlooking the church of St Bartholomew the Great.
Barbican underground; Farringdon Elizabeth Line and national rail.
Seven Stars, 53 Carey St, WC2A 3QS
Noon to 11pm every day – Sunday closes at 10pm
Just outside the City but warrants a mention. Dates to 1602 and looks the part.
Chancery Lane underground
Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, 145 Fleet St, EC4A 2BP
Noon to 11pm every day – Sunday closes at 10:30pm
A rambling Sam Smiths house dating to 1667. Past patrons include Charles Dickens, Christopher Wren, Samuel Johnson and Samuel Pepys.
Chancery Lane underground
Also see Docklands Pubs
1661-1736
Hawksmoor was an architect who began to work for Christopher Wren at 1680. He helped Wren with several City churches including St Paul’s cathedral.
In 1711 he was commissioned to help build around 50 churches in Greater London. Within the City his only church was St Mary Woolnoth which was completed in 1724 . Other churches included St. George-in-the-East, Wapping (1729), Christ Church, Spitalfields (1729) and St. Anne in Limehouse (1730) where you may find a Pyramid in the churchyard.