page_title: Bassishaw
section_title: Guilds and churches
hierarchical_section_title: Bassishaw / History / Guilds and churches
caption_attribution_description: English: Coleman Street and Bassinshaw Wards. 1754 Benjamin Cole source
context_page_description: Bassishaw is a ward in the City of London. This small ward is bounded on the east by Coleman Street ward, to the south by Cheap ward, to the north by Cripplegate ward, and on the west by Aldersgate ward. Historically, it consisted only of Basinghall Street with the courts and avenues leading from it, but since a boundary review in 2003 also includes streets further west, including Aldermanbury, Wood Street, and, to the north part of London Wall and St Alphage Garden. It was historically the City's smallest ward.
context_section_description: Located in this ward was a weekly cloth market, authorised by King Richard III. The coopers' guild hall was first founded in this ward in 1522, at The Swan, a public house, and, from 1547, a purpose-built hall accommodated the coopers. Their hall was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 but later rebuilt on the same site. They rebuilt again in 1865, selling a part of the site to the City of London Corporation for the expansion of the Guildhall. This hall was destroyed by fire on the night of 29 December 1940.
  The masons' hall was constructed in 1463 in Mason's Avenue, a street which today forms part of the ward's southern boundary. Their hall was also sold to the Corporation in 1865. The weavers and girdlers also had their guild halls in the ward. The modern livery halls of the pewterers, salters and brewers are also located in Bassishaw.
  There were two churches in this small ward, neither of which remain standing. St Michael Bassishaw, dedicated to St Michael, the archangel, which was founded in the 12th century. At that time, the rectorship was included in the gift of St Bartholomew-the-Great, but, over time, it came to be associated with St Paul's Cathedral itself. The church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London, and rebuilt in 1679. It was united with St Lawrence Jewry in 1897; the site was sold in 1899 and the church was demolished in 1900. St Alphage London Wall, also damaged in the Great Fire but not rebuilt until 1777, was eventually demolished in 1924.
caption: Cole's 1755 map of Bassishaw ward.
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