The Sun.
London, England, 1864-09-20 00:00:00

The Great Fire in the City,

DESTRUCTION OF HABERDASHERS' HALL,
One of the mast extensive conflagrations with which the
city of London has been visited for very many years took
place yesterday morning, in Gresham-street West. It oc-
curred in a block of buildings of an oblong form, having
a principal ffont in Gresham street West, on its northern
side, and extending from the corner of Wood-street to the
thoroughfare known as S aining- lane, and embracing
within its area the newly-built and extensive warehouses in
the occupation of Messrs Thomas Tapling and Co., carpet
manufacturers; Messrs W. F. Harris and Co., importers of
Utrecht velvet; Messrs Richard Hellaby and Co., ware-
housemen; Messrs Edmonds, Son and Co., wholesale but-
ton manufacturers, and other firms ; also the ancient house
belonging to the guild of Haberdashers, which, with the
other buildings, and the thousands of pounds worth of stock
they contained, now present but a mass of ruins, though the
newly-built walls in Gresham-street and some of the party
walls remain standing. The large establishment of Mr
Hugh Jones, in Wood-street, has also severely suffered, but
to what extent at present it is impossible accurately to tell.
The site of the Haberdashers' Hall was bequeathed to the
company in the year 1478 (17th Edward IV.), and the one
which formerly stood upon the enclosure which forms the
area of the present fire is described as being very spacious,
for in it met the Parliament Commissioners during the in-
terregnum. The present building (or at least as much of it
as remains) was built by Sir Christopher Wren upon a por-
tion of the site of the original building, which was destroyed
by the great fire of London. The building was of brick, a
heavy pile, having no particular pretensions to exterior or-
nament, but richly fashioned and decorated in the interior.
But a short time since, when the premises of Messrs. Tap-
ling and Co. were erected, a handsome gateway and pas-
sage leading to the Court-room and back buildings was
erected in Gresham-street, to harmonise with the new struc-
tures, and handsome iron gates fixed in the new doorway,
and the old wall was repaired, but not rebuilt. Of these
the major part are destroyed. In the hall of the master and
wardens, wo understand, there were several admirable
paintings by early masters, one especially rare and fine,
called The Wise Men's Offering;" also a small statue of
Henry VIII., several portraits of benefactors to the charities
of the company, including one of Robert Aske, who left the
guild the munificent sum of £30,000 to build and endow
almshouses in Heaton, considered to be the finest and most
comfortably provided of any similar institutions in the me-
tropolis. In the chests within the building were the archives
of the company—at least those saved at the time of the
great fire in 1666, including those up to the reign of Charles
and also a atrial' vellum book of ordinances, in which

there is a good illumination of St. Kathal ins, the patron
saint of the haberdashers. In this hall also there was a fine
portrait of Sir George Whitmore, Lord Mayor of London in
1631, who entertained Charles the First and his Queen in
his noble mansion of Baumas (or Balmas) in the Singsland-
road, Hoxton.
TIF) walls of the drawing • rooms, the grand reception halls,
and retiring rooms were fitted up most elaborately in gold
and ornamental oak panels, whilst the panels of the great
hall and the drawing-room and reception rooms were covered
with full length portraits of the Lord Mayors of many years
past. Several of these were saved owing to the assistance
of the Royal Society's escapes,