THE LEATHERSELLERS
A SHORT HISTORY
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The Reception Room in the sixth Hall. Its magnificent Wilton carpet was hand-woven in one piece in the 1950s, and depicts animals used in leather production together with coats of arms of the Leathersellers’, Glovers’, Cordwainers’ and Saddlers’ Companies. It is now installed in the current seventh Hall.
In the inter-war years work resumed on St Helen’s Place, with Leathersellers’ Hall being extensively remodelled; but the Company did not enjoy its new surroundings for long. On the night of 10/11 May 1941, incendiary bombs fell on 16 St Helen’s Place and neighbouring Leathersellers’ Hall soon caught fire. A low tide on the Thames meant that there was not sufficient water to extinguish the blaze until morning, by which time the Hall had been almost entirely gutted, with great loss of furniture, artworks and treasures. After another spate of bombing in 1944 it was reported that over 400 properties belonging to the Company had been damaged, the most significant loss being Colfe’s School. The pupils were evacuated to schools in Tunbridge Wells and Somerset and spent many years in temporary accommodation before the School re-opened in 1964 on a new site in Lee. Girls were first admitted to Colfe’s Sixth Form in 1977 and the school became fully co-educational in 1999. The most recent iteration of the Leathersellers’ Foundation’s support to enable social mobility through Colfe’s School began in 2010. Initially enabling just two scholars to attend the Sixth Form, whose financial circumstances would otherwise have prevented them from doing so, the scheme grew and over the last 14 years has provided access to a Colfe’s education for
113 individual “Leathersellers Scholars”. Unsurprisingly, property was a major preoccupation in the post-war period. Great tranches of war-damaged suburban housing were sold off in a move to diversify the Company’s investment portfolio, while in 1948 the long process of rebuilding Leathersellers’ Hall began with the appointment of the Louis de Soissons Partnership as consulting architects. Work was hampered by post-war bureaucracy and shortages of men and materials, but was finally completed in 1960. Smaller and more intimate than its predecessor, the new, sixth Hall’s combination of traditional architecture and expert craftsmanship attracted the attention of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, who paid an informal visit to inspect Louis de Soissons’ latest work. ON THE NIGHT OF 10/11 MAY 1941, INCENDIARY BOMBS FELL ON 16 ST HELEN’S PLACE AND NEIGHBOURING LEATHERSELLERS’ HALL SOON CAUGHT FIRE.
Etching by Stanley Anderson of the gateway to St Helen’s Place in 1911, with an early motor car by the entrance to the fifth Hall at the far end of the street on the left. These wrought iron gates were removed in 1926 and are now at Leathersellers’ Close in Barnet.
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