Watermen's Hall

The only original Georgian livery hall surviving in the City of London, Watermen's Hall was built in 1780 to the designs of William Blackburn for the Company of Watermen and Lightermen, the ancient guild that regulated the boatmen who once carried London's passengers and cargo along the Thames. Its Court Room is the compact, elegant heart of the building: a marble fireplace crowned by the Company's dolphin-and-oar crest, tall arched windows glazed in stained glass, and walls lined with portraits of past Masters. A 1983 extension added the larger Freemen's Room alongside it, its cabinets holding silverware and Company memorabilia and its curtained windows looking onto St Mary-at-Hill.

Two further rooms complete the suite. The Parlour, reached past a stained-glass window inscribed to past Masters, suits a boardroom-scale meeting or an intimate dinner; the wood-panelled Silver Room, lined with bookshelves and ship models, has the feel of a private library. Together the four rooms can be taken separately or, for a larger reception, the Freemen's Room and Court Room combined.

Just off St Mary-at-Hill and a few minutes from Monument, the hall is one of the few Georgian survivals of its kind still in daily use, run today for private hire by the Company itself with catering handled exclusively by The Cook & The Butler.