• About
  • Baldwin Hamey
  • Index
  • Map

London Details

~ Details you did not know about London

London Details

Tag Archives: Alfred Turner

Fishmongers’ Hall

19 Wednesday Dec 2012

Posted by Baldwin Hamey in building, statue

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

Alfred Turner, fish, Thames

Fish on post at Fishmongers' Hall

This post is closely related to the previous one on Billingsgate fish market, because the Fishmongers’ Company has been responsible for the quality of produce on that market for centuries. The Company is one of the London guilds and has existed for at least 700 years. It used to be called the Stock Fishmongers’ Company, but it got its present name when it merged with the Salt Fishmongers’ Company in 1537.

In 1666, Fishmongers’ Hall was destroyed in the Great Fire, but because of its location so close to the river, the papers and valuables could easily be transported to safety. Although the Fire was an absolute disaster, it did give the Company the opportunity to rebuild the hall on a grander scale.

Fishmongers' Hall from Thornbury, vol. 2

Fishmongers’ Hall from W. Thornbury, Old and New London, vol. 2

In 1828, another external event, albeit this time not as catastrophic as the Fire, gave the Company the opportunity to build a new Hall once again. The post-Fire building was by then in need of urgent repairs and when part of the site was needed for New London Bridge, the Company enlisted an architect to design them a new Hall. The building, designed by Henry Roberts with the assistance of Gilbert Scott and built by Thomas Cubitt, was completed in 1835 and has an arcaded gallery at the water’s edge. The wharf is now part of the walkway (Thames Path) and freely accessible.

Fishmongers' Hall from The History of London

The front of Fishmongers’ Hall on Upper Thames Street. Steel engraving from The History of London, ed. W.G. Fearnside, engraved by J. Woods, 1838

Fishmongers' Hall

The lamps on Fishmongers’ Hall


Fishmongers' Hall detail

Detail of the lamp

In the staircase niche on the Thames side of the Hall stand statues of a fisherman and a fishergirl. The marble girl was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1901 and she was placed, with her male companion at Fishmongers’ Hall in 1902. The sculptor, Alfred Turner (1874-1940), had been given the commission in 1899 when the hall was being redecorated and he was paid 1200 guineas in total for the two statues. Alfred was the son of sculptor Charles Edward Halsey Turner and had entered the Royal Academy Schools in 1895. His most well-known works are the friezes at the Old Bailey and the horse with two men on top of the South Africa War Memorial at Delville Wood, France.(1)

Fishmongers' Hall statues by Alfred Turner

Statues by Alfred Turner

The Hall is not open to the public, but guided tours are possible, see here.

(1) Philip Ward-Jackson, Public Sculpture of the City of London (2003), p. 482; and Wikipedia.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit
  • Tumblr

Like this:

Like Loading...

Links

  • My other blog:
    London Street Views
  • Index
  • Map

Enter your email address to follow this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Or:

Follow on Bloglovin

Recent Posts

  • Millar’s obelisk
  • Bolding’s Grosvenor Works
  • Heraldic shields
  • Beasley’s Yard
  • Watts Chapel
  • Alexander Cruden, the Corrector
  • 53 Kingsland Road
  • Green oasis 3 – Geffrye
  • A gate at the Royal Exchange
  • St. Mary’s clock tower

Categories

  • building
  • cemetery
  • church
  • dock
  • inn
  • library
  • memorial/monument
  • plaque
  • prison
  • public utility
  • sculpture
  • statue
  • street
  • street furniture

advertising Alfred Turner Aumonier Australia bank Baptists Benjamin Creswick Billingsgate Bishopsgate Blomfield book trade Brentford Bunhill Fields civil engineering coat of arms coffee house Cromwell Cutlers' Company Daily Express Daniel Defoe David Kemp Dickens dioramas dolphin draper Elizabeth I fish Fleet Street Francis Smith glass guild Hatton Garden Hay's Wharf Heinemann hop horticulture housing insurance Ireland John Bunyan King Lud knight Lambeth lamppost law library Ludgate market medicine Mercers' Company monastery newspapers Nonconformists obelisk Peabody philanthrophy Pimlico politics Postman's Park R.H. Moore Royal Exchange St. Bartholomew-the-Great St. Dunstan-in-the-West St. Katherine Dock Sydney Thames Thomas Tayler Smith transport Vulliamy weathervane Whitefriars William Blake Willing Yorkshire Young

Blogs and Sites I like

  • London Street Views
  • Chetham’s Library Blog
  • Marsh’s Library, Dublin
  • Caroline’s Miscellany
  • London Unveiled
  • London Historians’ Blog
  • Medieval London
  • Discovering London
  • IanVisits
  • Faded London
  • Ornamental Passions
  • Charles Ricketts & Charles Shannon
  • Jane Austen’s World
  • London Life with Bradshaw’s Hand Book
  • Georgian Gentleman
  • Flickering Lamps
  • On Pavement Grey – Irish connections
  • Aunt Kate
  • SilverTiger

Creative Commons Licence

Creative Commons License
London Details by Baldwin Hamey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Privacy & Cookies: This site uses cookies. By continuing to use this website, you agree to their use.
To find out more, including how to control cookies, see here: Cookie Policy
  • Follow Following
    • London Details
    • Join 286 other followers
    • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
    • London Details
    • Customize
    • Follow Following
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Report this content
    • View site in Reader
    • Manage subscriptions
    • Collapse this bar
 

Loading Comments...
 

    %d bloggers like this: