Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths

The Worshipful Company of Masons is one of the ancient Livery Companies of the City of London, number 30 in the order of precedence of the 110 companies. It was granted Arms in 1472, during the reign of King Edward IV; its motto is “God Is Our Guide”. The Masons’ Company (not to be confused with the Freemasons), which emerged in the late Middle Ages, played an important role in medieval and early modern London. It regulated the craft of stonemasonry, for example by ensuring that standards and the training of apprentices were properly maintained, at first just in the City of London, but subsequently also in the City of Westminster and seven miles from each. It was also an important social organisation in the lives of its members. Like most Livery Companies, it maintains its social function, but the Company’s economic and administrative role has changed over time and it no longer oversees the craft in this traditional way, although it remains actively involved in supporting those training in stonemasonry and in promoting the use of natural stone. It remains one of the few Livery Companies today whose craft, particularly its tools, would be recognisable to its early members. Of all the ancient crafts used in Britain, masons have left the most impressive and most permanent evidence of their work. Members of the Company are known to have taken part in the construction of many of these famous structures, for example, the London Guildhall, and St Paul’s Cathedral.

The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. An organisation of painters of metals and wood is known to have existed as early as 1283. A similar organisation of stainers, who generally worked on staining cloth for decorative wall hangings, existed as early as 1400. The two bodies merged in 1502; the new organisation was incorporated under a Royal Charter in 1581. Today, the Company is less a trade association of painters and more a charitable company, with the promotion of education in the fine and decorative arts and crafts as its main theme. The Painters' Company Scholarship Scheme was established in 2012 to support undergraduates every year at London Art Colleges. Each student receives £5,000 annually from the beginning of their second year until they complete their studies, and they are known as a Painters' Company Scholar. The students are selected entirely on merit, and this is the most meritocratically-awarded scholarship for art students in London today.The Painters Company also co-sponsors one of the largest UK open art competitions: the Lynn Painter-Stainers Prize was created in 2005 by the Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers and the Lynn Foundation to encourage the very best creative representational painting and promote the skill of draftsmanship. It awards prize money of £30,000. Eleven Liverymen have held the office of Lord Mayor of London since 1922. The Company ranks twenty-eighth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies. The Company's motto is Amor Queat Obedientiam, Latin for Love Can Compel Obedience. The Master for the year ensuing 19 October 2015 is Anthony John Ward, son of the late Liveryman and scribe to the Company, John Ward. The Clerk is Christopher John Twyman. The livery company's hall is situated between Huggin Hill and Little Trinity Lane, in the ward of Queenhithe.

Holy Trinity the Less was a parish church in Knightrider Street in the City of London, destroyed in the Great Fire of London. Following the fire the site was used for a Lutheran church, which was eventually demolished in 1871 to make way for Mansion House underground station.

St. Michael Queenhithe was a church in the City of London located in what is now Upper Thames Street. First recorded in the 12th century, the church was destroyed during the Great Fire of London in 1666. Rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren, it was demolished in 1876.

The church of St Mildred, Bread Street, stood on the east side of Bread Street in the Bread Street Ward of the City of London. It was dedicated to the 7th century Saint Mildred the Virgin, daughter of Merewald, sub-king of the West Mercians. Of medieval origin, the church was rebuilt to the designs of Sir Christopher Wren following its destruction in the Great Fire of London in 1666. One of the few City churches to retain Wren's original fittings into the 20th century, St Mildred's was destroyed by bombs in 1941.

30 Cannon Street is a modern office building on Cannon Street in the City of London, close to Mansion House underground station. It was designed by Whinney, Son & Austen Hall as an office building for Crédit Lyonnais and built between 1974 and 1977. It became a Grade II listed building in 2015. The location was formerly the site of the city church of St Mildred, Bread Street, designed by Christopher Wren after the medieval church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London; the Wren church was bombed and destroyed in the Second World War. The site was one of the last bomb sites in London to be redeveloped. The building has six storeys with a raised basement. Its height was limited due to its proximity to St Paul's Cathedral to the north-west, and the high water table prevented a sub-basement. Its shape was constrained by its triangular island site, east of Bread Street, west of the junction where Cannon Street crosses Queen Victoria Street. It originally had an entrance on each façade (the western one on Bread Street has been removed) and a large central circular banking hall (also now removed). Although built for Crédit Lyonnais, it was designed so it could occupied by three separate banks, one in each corner of the building, but the interior has been significantly altered. The façades are characterised by tiers of repeating arched white frames around recessed windows of bronze-tinted glass, with each tier separated by a black granite string course which incorporates hidden drainage. The cladding units are pre-cast double-skinned 1.5 metres (4 ft 11 in) wide modules of glass fibre reinforced cement (GRC), using a mixture of Portland cement with 5% alkali-resistant glass fibre as reinforcement. It was the first building in the world to be entirely clad with GRC panels. Triple-width modules on the ground floor 4.5 metres (15 ft) wide have two canted windowpanes meeting at an angle, with similar modules repeated on upper floors to either side of the entrances. The slim profile and light weight of the GRC panels allowed the architect to slope the walls outward at an angle of five degrees, with each floor slightly larger than the one below, creating extra office space. The units of the partial upper floor are inverted, creating a roof line that resembles a crown to the north side and at the eastern end; a roof deck occupies at the south-western corner. Railings on the street have shapes similar to the cladding panels.

Mansion House is a London Underground station in the City of London which takes its name from Mansion House, the residence of the Lord Mayor of London. It opened in 1871 as the eastern terminus of the Metropolitan District Railway. Today, Mansion House is served by the Circle and District lines. It is between Blackfriars and Cannon Street stations and it is in fare zone 1. The station is located at the junction of Queen Victoria Street and Cannon Street. Mansion House is a sub-surface station with three platforms. The westbound platform, number 1, and the eastbound platform, number 3, are shared by both the Circle and District lines. A third platform was used for terminating eastbound trains, however it is no longer used and the track removed as services continue and terminate at Tower Hill. Despite the station's name, it is not the nearest tube station to Mansion House itself, which is in fact directly opposite an entrance to Bank station. Moreover, two other stations on the same District and Circle lines (Cannon Street and Monument) are also nearer to Mansion House than its namesake.

Friday Street is a small street in the City of London. The street is reported to have been named either after a fish market held on Fridays (which was traditionally a day of abstinence from meat), or a corruption of the Old English word Frigdaeges. It originally ran between Cheapside and Old Fish Street and was one of the principal thoroughfares of the Bread Street Ward in Mediaeval London. It was partially cleared to construct Queen Victoria Street, and following damage in World War II, only the section between Queen Victoria Street and Cannon Street remains.The street once had three churches: St Margaret Moses, St John the Evangelist and St Matthew. All three were destroyed in the Great Fire of London. St Matthew was rebuilt following the fire, but subsequently demolished.Bracken House sits at the corner of Friday Street and Cannon Street. It was designed by Albert Richardson as the main office and print works of the Financial Times.

St James Garlickhythe is a Church of England parish church in Vintry ward of the City of London, nicknamed "Wren's lantern" owing to its profusion of windows. Recorded since the 12th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666 and rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren. It is also the official church of eleven City livery companies.

The Mermaid Tavern was a tavern on Cheapside in London during the Elizabethan era, located east of St. Paul's Cathedral on the corner of Friday Street and Bread Street. It was the site of the so-called "Fraternity of Sireniacal Gentlemen", a drinking club that met on the first Friday of every month that included some of the Elizabethan era's leading literary figures, among them Ben Jonson, John Donne, John Fletcher and Francis Beaumont, Thomas Coryat, John Selden, Robert Bruce Cotton, Richard Carew, Richard Martin, and William Strachey. A popular tradition has grown up that the group included William Shakespeare, although most scholars think that was improbable.

All Hallows Bread Street was a parish church in the Bread Street ward of the City of London, England. It stood on the east side of Bread Street, on the corner with Watling Street. First mentioned in the 13th century, the church was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. The church was rebuilt by the office of Sir Christopher Wren and demolished in 1876.

St Nicholas Olave was a church in the City of London, on the west side of Bread Street Hill in Queenhithe Ward. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of London and was never rebuilt. Instead the parish was united with that of St Nicholas Cole Abbey.