Description
Saddlers' Company Royal Charter dates from 1395, by which time the first Saddlers' Hall was built on this site, rebuilt after the Great Fire in 1672. A third building of 1822-33 was destroyed in 1940 and rebuilt by 1958 in Neo-Georgian style. Saddlers' Hall courtyard garden was re-landscaped in 1989 and consists of cobbled roadway with a raised bed planted with shrubs, a number of urns, and a sculpted horse's head. On the south wall is a carved pediment originally from the third Hall and formerly on the Foster Lane entrance.
Practical Information
| Site location | 44 Gutter Lane |
|---|---|
| Postcode | EC2V 6BR |
| What3Words | ///eggs.repay.stars |
| Type of Site | Private Garden |
| Borough | City of London |
| Open to Public | By appointment only |
| Opening Times | private, but visible through railings. Visits may be possible by appointment |
| Public Transport | Tube: St Paul's (Central) |
| Research Updated | 1 June 2010 |
| Last Updated | 18 October 2026 |
Full description
The Royal Charter of the Worshipful Company of Saddlers dates form 1395, and it is one of the oldest Livery companies in the City. It was pre-dated by a Guild of Saddlers, which was established by at least c.1160 but may have existed prior to the Norman Conquest. The Company remains involved in the saddlers trade today and supports British equestrianism. There are references to a Saddlers' Hall and properties in Gutter Lane in 1395. In 1393 a sum of money had been bequeathed to the Saddlers of London by William de Lincolne, one of four Saddlers elected in 1362 to safeguard the Guild's ordnances, whose will stipulated that a common hall be built within 3 years of the bequest. The first Hall was on Westcheape in an area known as The Saddlery between Cheapside and Gutter Lane. It was rebuilt in 1671 after destruction in the Great Fire, but this second Hall was itself destroyed by a fire in 1821. The third Hall, built in 1822-33, was destroyed by bombing in December 1940 and it was rebuilt in 1955-8 in Neo-Georgian style designed by L Sylvester Sullivan. On the south wall of the courtyard is the carved pediment dating from the third Hall, formerly at the Foster Lane entrance. The landscaping of the courtyard consists of cobbled roadway with a raised bed planted with shrubs, a number of urns, and a sculpted horse's head. The site abuts the wall of the church of St Vedast alias Foster (q.v.) . Horse statue and fountain were purchased rather than commissioned, the former is nicknamed 'The General'.
Further Information
| Grid Reference | TQ322812 |
|---|---|
| Size in hectares | 0.0257 |
| Site Ownership | The Worshipful Company of Saddlers |
| Site Management | The Worshipful Company of Saddlers |
| Dates | C15th; 1989 |
| Designers | 1989 landscaping by James Welch |
| On National Heritage List for England (NHLE), Parks & Gardens | No |
| Registered common or village green on Commons Registration Act 1965 | No |
| Protected under London Squares Preservation Act 1931 | No |
| Local Authority | City of London |
| In Conservation Area | No |
| Tree Preservation Order | No |
| Nature Conservation Area | No |
| Green Belt | No |
| Metropolitan Open Land | No |
| Special Policy Area | No |
| Other LA Designation | Strategic Viewing Corridor |
Gallery
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Nearby parks and gardens
St Vedast was a C6th French Bishop of Arras, the name anglicised as Foster. The church may have received its dedication as a result of being on Foster Lane. There has been a church here since 1100; a late C15th/early C16th chapel was replaced in the early C17th by a new church, itself damaged in the Great Fire of 1666 and rebuilt first by the parish and then by Wren probably using the old walls. The church was later damaged in WWII. St Vedast's had a small burial ground on the north side of the church and the remains of the churchyard is now a secluded courtyard garden, with a number of commemorative plaques set into the walls and a small relief sculpture by Jacob Epstein.
The garden is on the site of the medieval church of St Peter Cheap, also called West Cheap, which burnt down in the Great Fire in 1666 and was not rebuilt, the parish joining that of St Matthew Friday Street. There was a market in this area from early times, 'cheap' being the Anglo-Saxon word for market. Three gravestones survive set into remnants of the wall, including a stone tablet of 1687, and the railings on the boundary with Wood Street date from 1712, with an inset plaque of St Peter. The churchyard was laid out as a public garden in the C19th and has a large plane tree that William Wordsworth referred to in his poem, 'The Reverie of Poor Susan'. Overlooked on three sides, the sheltered garden is largely paved, and has seats and a number of low raised beds, each now planted with a tree fern in recent years.
New Change Buildings, demolished in 2007, were built in 1953-60 for the Bank of England with a formal sunken garden facing Bread Street with C18th style fountains and lawns, crossed by a causeway leading to an internal central courtyard with a fountain, planting and C18th style lead cisterns. Bread Street was part of the City's market area, and was the site of the first C15th Hall of the Worshipful Company of Salters. The building was demolished in 2007 and the new scheme by Jean Nouvel was completed in 2010, with new pedestrian routes and public access to a rooftop plaza.
