The Stationers' Company
The City of London Livery Company for the Communications and Content Industries
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350 YEARS OF STATIONERS' HALL: AN ONLINE EXHIBITION

  Celebrating the 350th Anniversary of our Hall: Unearthing the Hall’s Hidden History through Stories from the Archives  

Click on an image below to learn more about it

2023 marks the 350th anniversary of Stationers’ Hall and its rebuilding after Abergavenny House was destroyed in the Great Fire in 1666. The Hall is a piece of living architecture that has survived because it, and the Company, has adapted to changing demands over the centuries. The 17th century Company needed a Hall to function as both a business and social space. In some ways the Fire forced the Company to review what was needed, and rebuilding was completed relatively quickly as the Court records show. The rebuild was done in some style and the post Fire Hall and associated structures functioned well right into the 20th century and the bomb damage to the hall and Court Room. Arguably, the regulatory environment after the war and the ability to invest was more challenging in the post war world than the post Fire period.

The imaginative and stylish modern renovations that opened in 2022 complete a cycle of enhancement and continuing innovation. For our annual Archive Evening in April 2023, we brought together a panel of experts to explore the key players and personalities that have shaped our Hall and the site in its rebuild.  From Sir Thomas Davies, the first Stationer Lord Mayor and Pepys’ bookseller,  to Samuel Mearne, bookbinder to Charles II and member of the Committee for Building after the Fire, the panel investigated how the Hall survived, how it was used and how it was built and rebuilt through the stories of the people that made it happen.

Archive Evening attendees each received a printed Timeline illustrating the unique history of the Hall. This exhibition brings together the images used in that Timeline, and offers further background information. 

A greatly simplified plan showing the outline of Stationers' Hall, its garden, lobby and courtroom, in relation to London Wall on the west and the St Martin's Ludgate Church to the south (the plan is drawn with a west-up orientation).
An oval head and shoulders portrait of Charles II, wearing a long curly wig and an elaborate lace collar. The portrait is surrounded by a pattern of gold leaves and tendrils. The image is taken from the top left-hand corner of the 1684 Charter.
Manuscript extract of the text of the Statute of Anne.
The painting shows Alfred seated in an idealised rural kitchen, facing towards us. His right hand is stretched out to offer half a loaf of bread to a man with a pilgrim's staff, entering the painting from the left-hand margin of the painting. Behind Alfred's outstretched hand, a young boy leans against the wall, arms folded, looking on. On the right of the painting stand three small children and a woman with a baby at her breast. One little girl intently watches the dividing of the loaf, while the other children look up pleadingly at their mother.
Stained glass window as described in the main text. The setting of the window shows the wood panelling and gilded plasterwork at Stationers' Hall.
A scroll with ornate calligraphy and three wax seals hanging from the lower edge, issued by the College of Arms. Across the header of the document are the arms of the Monarch, the Earl Marshal and the College of Arms in London. The arms of the Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers are shown in the main part of the document. Heraldic description of the arms: Azure, on a chevron between three books with clasps, an eagle volant gules with a nimbus, between two roses gules leaved vert. In chief issuing out of a cloud proper radiates a Holy Spirit, wings displayed, argent with a nimbus. On either side an angel proper, vested argent, mantled azure, winged and blowing a trumpet. Motto: Verbum Dei manet in aetemum (the Word of God lasts forever)
The photograph shows a room devastated by bomb damage. On the left-hand wall, a painting hangs askew. Daylight pours in from a crater in the roof; a chandelier, suspended from the remnants of the ceiling, seems relatively intact. At the corner of the room, a section of the wall has been reduced to rubble, over which half a picture-frame dangles. With his back to us, a man surveys the ruin.
Manuscript page of the Stationers' Register. With original spelling but some typographic rearrangement, the entry for the First Folio reads: '8° Nouembris. 1623... M[aste]r. Blounte, Isaak Jaggard: Entred for their Copie vnder the hands of M[aster]r. Do[cto]r. Worrall and M[aste]r. Cole warden M[aste]r. William Shakspeers Comedyes Histories & Tragedyes soe manie of the said Copies as are not formerly entred to other men. vizt. Comedyes: The Tempest; The two gentlemen of Verona; Measure for Measure; The Comedy of Errors; As you like it; All’s well that ends well; Twelfe night; The winter’s tale. Histories: The thirde parte of Henry ye sixt; Henry the eight. Tragedies: Coriolanus; Timon of Athens; Iulius Cæsar; Mackbeth; Anthonie & Cleopatra; Cymbeline.'
Photograph showing part of Stationers' Hall garden with the new Link Building, joining the main Hall and Court Room. The exterior of the new building is chamfered, in contrast to the flat exteriors of the adjacent buildings. The design gives space for a reception area in front of the newly inserted lift shaft, providing full step-free access to the Hall..
Sketch of a man in seventeenth-century English dress (doublet and hose, stockings, tasselled shoes, capotain hat with a feather). He is pushing a wooden wheelbarrow full of books.
A silver dish. the slightly raised rim with moulded border raised on a trumpet foot, the centre engraved with a Coat of Arms of the Mearn family and that of the Company, also engraved 'The Gift of Samuel Mearn.' Indented are the hallmark and the maker's mark of the silversmith, Robert Cooper.
Seventeenth century head and shoulders portrait of a man.
Book bound in red leather with ornate gold tooling, resting on a book-pillow
Printed invitation with the text: 'Sir, You are desired by the Master and Wardens of the Company of Stationers, to meet at their Hall in your Livery Gown and Hood, (according to ancient Custom) on Wednesday the 10th of this instant August, 1681. at Nine of the Clock in the Forenoon precisely; and from thence to accompany them to the Parish Church of S. Martin-Ludgate, there to hear a sermon; and after to Dine with the said Company. And you are required not to come without a Gown and Hood upon the forfeiture of 2 s. to the Poor of the Said Company. Randall Taylor, Beadle. Your Wife is also desired to Dine with the Company.'
Stained glass window featuring a winged and haloed woman holding a portative organ.
Nineteenth century picture of a barge
'William Blake, son of James of Broad Street Carnaby Market, Hosier, to James Basire of Great Queen Street, Linconlns Inn Fields, seven years. £52 paid by his father.'
Extract of writing from the title page of Moore's Almanack for 1779. The page has been stamped to show that duty was paid on the publication.
Eighteenth century portrait of a man wearing a wig and velvet overcoat in front of a conventional rural backdrop.
Pen and watercolour sketch of the courtyard and main entrance of Stationers' Hall.
Sketch of the head of a man, wearing a wig and three-cornered hat. Robert Mylne's signature is reproduced on the lower right-hand corner.
Pen and watercolour elevation, section and plan of an octagonal building with sloping glass roof built around the trunk of a tree. The section shows the interior walls lined with bookshelves and plan-chest drawers, with desks and chairs occupying the inner ring. The drawings are signed 'F.D. Bone, 30 Sept 1930.'
Painting of a group of boys in coats and knickerbockers playing cricket in front of a school-house.
In the left-hand corner of the menu is a page-boy dressed in pink, apparently presenting an invitation to the dinner. The menu includes two types of turtle soup, three types of fish, six meat dishes, and four desserts, plus starters, entremets and ices.
First page of a printed copy of the 1842 Copyright Act.
A plaque featuring the crest and motto of the Stationers' Company, and the text:' To the glory of God in honoured memory of the Liverymen of the Worshipful Company of Stationers who gave their lives for God, king and country during the Great War 1914-1918: William Edward Davy; Robert Lancaster; John Harris Miles; Harry R.S. Pulman; Heriot Baker Roe; Cyril A. Truscott; Francis C. Truscott. Their Name liveth for evermore.'
Printed and signed form.
The photograph shows a bomb crater right in front of Stationers' Hall, exposing the foundations of the building.
Red, gold and blue banner bearing the coat of arms of the Prince of Wales
Photograph of two flags, crossed, displayed on a wooden panel in the Hall. The flags bear the colours of the Royal Marines, the Union Flag with the foul anchor and the reigning sovereign's cypher interlaced in the centre. Above is a scroll with the single battle honour Gibraltar surmounted by St Edward's Crown. Below is the globe (which represents the many battle honours the Royal Marines had earned) surrounded by a laurel wreath (which represents the Battle of Belle Isle) and below this is a scroll with the corps' motto.
Photograph of Prince Charles on the left, shaking hands with Col. Rubens, who has his head bowed. In the background is the east wing and blue side-door of Stationers' Hall.
Stained glass window, a colourful abstract design with panels featuring different typefaces, the Stationers' Company crest, and Caxton's initials.
Photograph of a woman in ceremonial robe and chain standing in the garden of Stationers' Hall.
Stained glass window featuring the classic portrait of Shakespeare. The window is surrounded by the oak panelling and armorial shields of Shakespeare's Hall.
Photograph showing a garden path leading up to the seventeenth-century warehouse where the new archive store and reading room are located.
Cover of the first prospectus for Stationers' Crown Woods Academy. On a blue background is a photograph of a suite of modern buildings, with the name, crest and website of the school, and the slogan, 'Our Community, Your Success.'
Photograph of a man in orange high visibility protective clothing and a hard hat, kneeling to uncover the next layer in an exposed trench in the garden of Stationers' Hall.
Photographs showing shards of glazed tiles.