DYERS' HALL

   On the west side of Dowgate Hill at No. 10 (P.O. Directory). In Dowgate Ward.

   Erected 1770. Rebuilt 1839-40.

   A plan of the first hall is given in L. and M. Arch. Soc. Trans. V. 462.

   The site was formerly occupied by the College for priests, called "Jesus Commons," dissolved H. VIII., and acquired by the Dyers' Company 1657. That portion of the site not required for the hall, when it was rebuilt in 1839-40, was let out as offices 1840-56, the roadway was widened and the line of frontage set back, whilst the entrance to the hall from College Street was closed and the present entrance made out of Dowgate Hill (L. and M. Arch. Soc. Trans. V. 463).

   The old hall of the Company had stood further east, in a passage leading south out of Thames Street to the river, east of Whitecock Alley, as shown in O. and M. 1677 and Rocque 1746. It was re-erected here after the Fire 1666, but was again destroyed by fire 1681 and not rebuilt, and for many years the Company were without a hall. In 1768-9 the hall fell down and was not rebuilt, and the site of this old hall was subsequently known as Dyers' Hall Wharf (q.v.).

   In 1652 it is referred to as the great messuage or tenement of the Dyers called the Three Stars, and then also called "Dyers' Hall" (End. Ch. Rep. 1829, p. 58).