Dyers' Hall

The Worshipful Company of Dyers has held ground at Dowgate Hill since 1731. The hall standing there now is the fourth the Company has built, designed by Charles Dyer and completed between 1839 and 1841, listed Grade II* and scheduled as an ancient monument. Guests arrive through cast-iron gates on Dowgate Hill, under the Company's painted arms and a hanging lantern, into a vaulted passage laid with Victorian encaustic tile.

Three rooms are let. The Court Room, on the first floor, is the one to come for: blue damask walls under a coffered ceiling picked out in red and gold, five cut-glass chandeliers, and a horseshoe of mahogany that seats sixty. Below it the Committee Room runs long and white-panelled beneath two silver chandeliers, with a marble chimneypiece at one end and sash windows onto the street. The Anteroom beside it holds ten around a single table.

Catering is done in-house, the hall holds its own alcohol licence, and a resident Hallkeeper runs the building. The Company keeps first call on its own diary, and the hall is not let on Mondays, Fridays or at weekends. Every room is reachable step-free, with an accessible lavatory on the ground floor and cloakrooms for guests. Cannon Street station is directly opposite.