Search Wikipedia Create account Log in

Guildhall 5 languages

Contents [hide] Article Talk Read Edit View history

(Top) From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Guildhalls as town hall in the This article is about a type of building. For other uses, see Guildhall (disambiguation).
Toggle Guildhalls
United as town hall in the United Kingdom subsection
Kingdom
A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building
List of guildhalls in the United
Kingdom originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and
the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in some
Guild halls as meeting houses
Toggle
for Guild cases museums while retaining their original names.
guildshalls as meeting houses for guilds subsection
Guildhalls in the Low Countries
Guildhalls as town hall in the United Kingdom [ edit ]
In Belgium
In the United Kingdom, a guildhall is usually a town hall: in the vast majority of
See also
cases, the guildhalls have never served as the meeting place of any specific guild.
References
A suggested etymology is from the Anglo Saxon "gild ", or "payment"; the guildhall
External links being where citizens came to pay their rates. The London Guildhall was
established around 1120.[1] For the Scottish municipal equivalent see tolbooth.[2]

List of guildhalls in the United Kingdom [ edit ]

Andover Guildhall
Guildhall, City of London
Barnstaple Guildhall
Bath Guildhall
Beverley Guildhall
Bewdley Guildhall
Blakeney Guildhall
Boston Guildhall
Brecon Guildhall
Bristol Guildhall
Bury St Edmunds Guildhall
Cambridge Guildhall
Canterbury Guildhall
Cardigan Guildhall
Carmarthen Guildhall
Chard Guildhall
Chester Guildhall
Chichester Guildhall
Conwy Guildhall
Derby Guildhall
Devonport Guildhall
Derry Guildhall
Exeter Guildhall
Faversham Guildhall
Gloucester Guildhall
Grantham Guildhall
Guildford Guildhall
Helston Guildhall
High Wycombe Guildhall
Hull Guildhall
King's Lynn Guildhall
Kingston upon Thames Guildhall
Lavenham Guildhall
Leicester Guildhall
Lichfield Guildhall
Lincoln Guildhall
Liskeard Guildhall
London Guildhall
Middlesex Guildhall
Much Wenlock Guildhall
Newcastle-under-Lyme Guildhall
Newcastle upon Tyne Guildhall
Merchant Adventurers' Hall, York
Newport Guildhall, Isle of Wight
Newport Guildhall, Shropshire
Northampton Guildhall
Norwich Guildhall
Oswestry Guildhall
Peterborough Guildhall
Plymouth Guildhall
Poole Guildhall
Portsmouth Guildhall
Preston Guildhall
Rochester Guildhall
Salisbury Guildhall
Saltash Guildhall
Southampton Guildhall
South Molton Guildhall
St Ives Guildhall
St Mary's Guildhall, Coventry
Stratford-upon-Avon Guildhall
Swansea Guildhall
Thaxted Guildhall
Thetford Guildhall
Totnes Guildhall
Weymouth Guildhall
Winchester Guildhall
Windsor Guildhall
Worcester Guildhall
York Guildhall

Windsor Guildhall in Windsor, Guildhall, London, in the City of Guildhall, Northampton

Berkshire also served as market, town London, is the seat of the Corporation
hall and courtroom of London, the governing body of the
city.

Guildhall, Chester

Guild halls as meeting houses for guilds [ edit ]

A type of guild was known in Roman times. Known as collegium, collegia or corpus, these were
organised groups of merchants who specialised in a particular craft and whose membership of
the group was voluntary. One such example is the corpus naviculariorum, the college of long-
distance shippers based at Rome's port, Ostia Antica. The Roman guilds failed to survive the
collapse of the Roman Empire.[3]

Merchant guilds were reinvented during Europe's Medieval period. In England, these guilds
went by many different names including: fraternity, brotherhood, college, company, corporation,
fellowship, livery, or society, amongst other terms. In Europe, merchant guilds were known as
natie, consulado or hansa.[4] A fraternity, formed by the merchants of Tiel in Gelderland The Merchant Guild House in Vyborg

(present-day Netherlands), in 1020 is believed to be the first example of a Medieval guild. The
first instance of usage of the term, "guild", was the gilda mercatoria used to describe a body of
merchants operating out of St. Omer, France in the 11th century and London's Hanse was
formed in the 12th century.[5] The merchants of Cologne had their house in London as early as
1157 and the Guilda Teutonicorum (German merchants warehouse) was located at Cosin Lane
and Thames Street in London on the 12th century.[6]

These guilds controlled the way that trade was conducted in their region and codified rules
governing the conditions of trade. Once established, merchant guild rules were often
incorporated into the charters granted to market towns. By the 13th and 14th centuries,
Girdler's Hall, the livery hall (guild
merchant guilds had acquired sufficient resources to erect guild halls in many major market
hall) of the Worshipful Company of
towns.[7] Girdlers in the City of London
Medieval guild halls were used to store goods and as places for celebratory events. When not
required for guild members' events, the hall often became place where townspeople could hold
entertainments such as Passion plays. Guild members often cleaned streets, removed rubbish,
maintained a nightwatch and provided food relief to the poor.[8] Some medieval guilds allowed
market trading to occur on the ground floor of the guildhall.[9]

In the City of London, the guilds are called "livery companies", and their guild halls are called
livery halls.[10][11]

Guildhalls in the Low Countries [ edit ]

The Zunfthaus zur Zimmerleuten
The Low Countries used to have guildhalls in every city, often one gildenhuis (Dutch, literally (carpenters' guildhall) in Zürich
"guild house") for each trade. They were often elaborate, ornate buildings, demonstrating the
guild's status. Occasionally a single hall would be used by all the city's guilds.[12]

The guildhall was used as the offices of the deken (deacon) and other guild officers, and for meetings by the overlieden (board of
directors). The guild members would occasionally be called to the guildhall for meetings on important matters.[13][14]

In Amsterdam, every guildhall had its gildeknecht (guild servant), often the guild's youngest member, and was guarded by a gildehond
(guild dog). Every evening, the guild brothers gathered in the tavern room of the guildhall to discuss the events of the day while the
gildeknecht served beer. Once a year, the guildmen would gather in the guildhall for a communal meal.[13]

The guildhall of the merchants' guild also served as de facto commodity market. Therefore, there was no need in the Middle Ages for a
separate building for this purpose.[13]

In the Low Countries, each guildhall was marked by the coat of arms of that guild, hanging from the facade of the building. Occasionally,
the coat of arms was replaced with a gable stone depicting a member of the guild, surrounded by the tools of his trade.[15]

In Belgium [ edit ]

The Round Table (or Tafelrond, in Dutch) in Leuven. Designed 1479 by Matheus de Layens, guildhall built 1480–1487 internally
comprising three houses, demolished 1817, reconstructed following original plans 1921. The old building's meeting rooms had been
let to the guilds; the new had been in use by a bank and became a personal private property.[16][17]
House The Salmon (or De Zalm, in Dutch) in Mechelen. Built c. 1530 in early Renaissance style by architect Willem van Wechtere
for the prosperous fishermen's guild, it is one of the city's finest historical houses. The artist Willem Geets [nl] (1839–1919) used to
live there. In the mid-20th century it became city property and held a museum, then the Tourist Information Office, and later again a
museum.[18]
In Brussels, the Grand-Place is famous for its many Baroque guildhalls, each one belonging to one of the former Guilds of Brussels.

The Makelaers Comptoir (brokers' Grand-Place of Brussels. From right to Guildhalls at the Grote Markt in
guildhall) in Amsterdam left: Le Roy d'Espagne, La Brouette, Le Antwerp
Sac, La Louve, Le Cornet and Le
Renard.

The Round Table (Tafelrond) at the

Grote Markt in Leuven

See also [ edit ]

Company of Merchant Adventurers of London

Company of Merchant Adventurers to New Lands
Germania (guild)
Guild

References [ edit ]

1. ^ Bowsher, D., Dyson, T., Holder, N. and Howell, I., The London
Guildhall: An Archaeological History of a Neighbourhood from
Early Medieval to Modern Times, London, MoLAS, 2007
2. ^ Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of
Scotland (1996). Tolbooths and Townhouses: Civic Architecture
in Scotland to 1833. Edinburgh: Royal Commission on the
Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. p. 1.
ISBN 0114957991.
3. ^ Epstein, S. A., Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe,
University of North Carolina Press, 1991, pp. 10–49
4. ^ Gelderblom, O. and Grafe, E., "The Persistence and Decline of
Merchant Guilds: Re-thinking the Comparative Study of
Commercial Institutions in Pre-modern Europe" [Working Paper],
Yale University, 2008
5. ^ "Merchant guild - trade association" .
6. ^ Stow, J., A Survey of London, Cambridge University Press,
2015, p. 319
7. ^ Epstein S.A, Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe,
University of North Carolina Press, 1991, pp. 50–100.
8. ^ Jovinelly, J. and Netelkos, J., The Crafts and Culture of a
Medieval Guild, The Rosen Publishing Group, 2006, pp 12-13
9. ^ "Town Hall and Guild Hall - VCH Explore" .
www.victoriacountyhistory.ac.uk.
10. ^ "Alphabetical list" . City of London. Archived from the
original on 18 April 2012.
11. ^ Engel, Matthew. "British institutions: livery companies" .
Financial Times. Retrieved 22 December 2012.
12. ^ The Dutch term 'gildehuis', 'gildenhuis' on Dictionarist(TM)
translated to English
13. ^ a b c Johannes Gouw, De gilden: eene bijdrage tot de
geschiedenis van het volksleven. Portielje & Zoon, 1866, p. 38
(Dutch)
14. ^ Otto van Rees, Geschiedenis der staathuishoudkunde in
Nederland tot het einde der achttiende eeuw, Kemink, 1865, p.
121 (Dutch)
15. ^ Jacob Lennep & Johannes Gouw, De uithangteekens in
verband met geschiedenis en volksleven beschouwd.
Gebroeders Kraay, 1868, p. 137 (Dutch)
16. ^ "The round table (tafelrond)" . Retrieved 20 July
2011.[permanent dead link]
17. ^ "Leuven architecture and sculptures (brochure)" (PDF). City
of Leuven (Tourism Leuven). Archived from the original (PDF)
on 30 September 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2011.
18. ^ "De Zalm: thuis voor de Besloten Hofjes (in Dutch)" .
Archived from the original on 2011-10-07. Retrieved
2011-07-20.

External links [ edit ]

Media related to Guildhalls at Wikimedia Commons

Media related to Guild houses at Wikimedia Commons
The dictionary definition of guildhall at Wiktionary

Categories: Guildhalls Seats of local government

This page was last edited on 21 November 2022, at 13:21 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered
trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers Contact Wikipedia Mobile view Developers Statistics Cookie statement