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THE BROCHURE SERIES The Guild Halls of London AUGUST, 1900 |
| PLATE LIX | HABERDASHER'S HALL: GREAT HALL |
THE | ||
| 1900. | AUGUST | No. 8. |
THE GUILD HALLS OF LONDON.
Perhaps there are no corporate bodies now existing in England which can trace their beginnings in a more unbroken line to the earliest recorded historical events of the country, and surely none which have exercised so great political and civic influence, as the famous trade-guilds of London. There now exist in that city about one hundred such associations, the twelve most prominent and influential of them being styled as the Twelve Great Livery Companies, and these associations exercise no slight share in the government of the world's metropolis. From rights which have survived to them from ancient charters, their members, although self-elected and not deriving their power from any popular suffrage, still choose the Lord Mayor of London from among the twenty-six aldermen of the city's wards, and his election takes place at the Guildhall, or central office of all the companies.