Gold Refiners - Aldersgate Street, Barbican, London, UK
N 51° 31.284 W 000° 06.391
30U E 700731 N 5711778
This piece of relief art was saved when buildings were demolished in the 1960s. It was re-erected in its present location in 1975 by the Corporation of London.
Waymark Code: WMF9BR
Location: London, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 09/14/2012
Views: 1
The sculpture is mounted atop a section of brick wall that
was erected especially to hold the stonework. A plaque, attached to the
brickwork, tells us:
This frieze was removed from numbers 53
and 54
Barbican when it was demolished in 1962 and re
erected by the
Corporation of London in 1975.
Numbers 53 and 54 Barbican were the
premises
of W Bryer & Sons Gold Refiners and Assayers
whose trade is
depicted in the frieze. The building
was one of the few which survived when
the area
was largely destroyed by incendiary bombs in
December
1940.
The Barbican Living website [visit link] tells
us:
"W Bryer & Sons were a firm of gold refiners. The
business is said to have been established in 1815, probably by a Thomas Sirrell,
and was located at 54 Barbican. In the early 1870s Sirrell’s firm, by then at
53-4 Barbican, was taken over by John Bryer, a former
watchmaker.
Bryer was listed as a gold and silver refiner and
smelter. He had a chronometer-making business in the adjoining house. After John
Bryer’s death in 1894 at the age of 87, his business was carried on by William,
Thomas and Henry Bryer.
The firm was at this time listed as being “gold and
silver refiners, wholesale and retail jewellers and watchmakers - diamonds,
jewellery and plate bought or valued; bookbinders’, dentists’, jewellers’ and
photographers’ waste refined and purchased”. Their premises were rebuilt in
1900.
A frieze showing the process of gold refining which was
saved from the original building is to be found in White Lyon Court facing the
Barbican YMCA.
There's still a W Bryer & Sons at 25A Hatton Garden
London EC1, who are now wholesale jewellers and
silversmiths."