Cutlers' Hall - Cloak Lane, London, UK - Blue Plaques on Waymarking.com

The blue plaque, that is rectangular in shape, reads:

The Corporation of

Site of
Cutlers' Hall
1416 - 1883
rebuilt after the
Great Fire 1666

The City of London

The Worshipful Company of Cutlers website tells us:

A ‘House of the Cutlers’, mentioned in 1285 as being on or near the site of the present Mercers’ Hall, is the earliest recorded regular meeting place of the Cutlers. By the early part of the 15th century the Cutlers were settled in a building in what is now Cloak Lane (by Cannon St. Station). The Company still holds the Conveyance of that Hall which describes the property as being ‘next to the tenement formerly belonging to the famous Richard Whityngton, sometime Mayor’. The hall was quite substantial and had a garden with a well and a vinery. In 1660, after some 250 years, the Hall was in need of extensive repairs and modernisation, and it was determined to rebuild it completely. By June 1666 the final bills had all been paid, but three months later it was completely destroyed in the Great Fire of London. The Company quickly set about rebuilding and the new Hall was ready for use in September 1670. This Hall was occupied for over 200 years until 1882 when the Metropolitan and District Railway Company acquired most of the site by compulsory purchase. The fifth and present Hall was built on land in Warwick Lane, which had been the site of the Royal College of Physicians from 1674 to 1825 and subsequently a foundry. The new Hall was designed by Mr. T. Tayler Smith, the Company’s Surveyor, and came into use on March 7th 1888.

The same website tells us about Cutlers:

The Cutlers’ Company is one of the most ancient of the City of London livery companies and received its first Royal Charter from Henry V in 1416. Its origins are to be found among the cutlers working in the medieval City of London in the vicinity of Cheapside. As was the case with the other trade guilds of the day, its function was to protect the interests of its members, to attend to their welfare, and to ensure that high standards of quality were maintained. Their business was producing and trading in knives, swords, and other implements with a cutting edge. Over time the emphasis shifted from implements of war to cutlery and other domestic wares such as razors and scissors.

With the demise of the sword making and cutlery trade in the City during the 19th. century, the Company directed its attention towards supporting the surgical instrument trade by indenturing apprentices, and expanding its charitable activities with particular emphasis on supporting education.

Today the Company combines these charitable endeavours with maintaining the traditions of the City of London; supporting the Mayoralty; providing fellowship and hospitality; and preserving the Company's Hall and other assets for the benefit of future generations. With a livery of only 100 members, many of whom have been admitted by patrimony, it is in every sense a family Company and one which is justly proud of its ancient heritage and ancestry.