The Worshipful Company of Barbers is one of the Livery Companies

Livery Company

The Livery Companies are 108 trade associations in the City of London, almost all of which are known as the "Worshipful Company of" the relevant trade, craft or profession. The medieval Companies originally developed as guilds and were responsible for the regulation of their trades, controlling,...

 of the City of London

City of London

The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...

. The organisation's records date as early as 1308, recording Richard le Barber as the first to hold the office of Master.

Barbers aided monks, who were at the time the traditional practitioners of medicine and surgery, for Papal decrees had prohibited the members of religious orders from spilling blood. Soon surgeons with little expertise in the art of the barbers began to join the Company.

In 1368, the Surgeons were allowed to form their own Guild. However, the Barbers' Guild retained the power to oversee surgical practices. The Barbers' Guild continued its oversight after it became, under a Royal Charter

Royal Charter

A royal charter is a formal document issued by a monarch as letters patent, granting a right or power to an individual or a body corporate. They were, and are still, used to establish significant organizations such as cities or universities. Charters should be distinguished from warrants and...

 of 1462, a Company. The Surgeon's Guild merged with the Barbers' Company in 1540 to form the Company of Barber-Surgeons. Their first master was the superintendent of St Bartholomew's Hospital

St Bartholomew's Hospital

St Bartholomew's Hospital, also known as Barts, is a hospital in Smithfield in the City of London, England.-Early history:It was founded in 1123 by Raherus or Rahere , a favourite courtier of King Henry I...

 and royal physician, Thomas Vicary

Thomas Vicary

Thomas Vicary was an early English physician, surgeon and anatomist.Vicary was born in Kent, in about 1490. He was, "but a meane practiser in Maidstone … that had gayned his knowledge by experience, until the King advanced him for curing his sore legge” Henry VIII advanced him to the position of...

. The presentation of the charter is the subject of a painting by Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger

Hans Holbein the Younger was a German artist and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style. He is best known as one of the greatest portraitists of the 16th century. He also produced religious art, satire and Reformation propaganda, and made a significant contribution to the history...

, in the collection of the National Portrait Gallery.

In 1745 the surgeons broke away from the barbers to form the Company of Surgeons becoming the Royal College of Surgeons

Royal College of Surgeons of England

The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...

 in 1800. This historical relationship is also demonstrated by the fact that the Company's Hall is still called "Barber-Surgeons' Hall", long after the change in Company name. The Hall is located in Monkwell Square in Aldersgate ward

Aldersgate

Aldersgate was a gate in the London Wall in the City of London, which has given its name to a ward and Aldersgate Street, a road leading north from the site of the gate, towards Clerkenwell in the London Borough of Islington.-History:...

, within the precincts of the Barbican estate

Barbican Estate

The Barbican Estate is a residential estate built during the 1960s and the 1970s in the City of London, in an area once devastated by World War II bombings and today densely populated by financial institutions...

.

The Company no longer retains an association with the hairdressing profession. It does however retain its links with surgery, principally acting as a charitable institution to the benefit of medical and surgical causes. Around 30% of the Company's liverymen are surgeons or other medical practitioners.

The Barbers' Company ranks seventeenth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies. The Company's motto is De Praescientia Dei, Latin for From the Foreknowledge of God.

Barber's Hall

The Barber's Hall was established in Monkwell Street in the 14th century. The hall survived the Great Fire of London

Great Fire of London

The Great Fire of London was a major conflagration that swept through the central parts of the English city of London, from Sunday, 2 September to Wednesday, 5 September 1666. The fire gutted the medieval City of London inside the old Roman City Wall...

; but was destroyed by enemy bombing

Strategic bombing

Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating an enemy nation-state by destroying its economic ability and public will to wage war rather than destroying its land or naval forces...

 in the London Blitz. The modern hall was rebuilt approximately 30 ft to the east of the former site.

After the licensing of dissection in 1540; public demonstrations took place four times a year in the Great Hall of Barber's Hall — with a crowd surrounding a table. Attendance was compulsory for all 'free' surgeons. By 1568, the 'Court of Assistants' of the Guild ordered wooden raised seating to be erected in the Hall during anatomies. By the 17th century, travellers noted that the universities at Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

 and Leiden possessed purpose–built anatomical theatres. Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones

Inigo Jones is the first significant British architect of the modern period, and the first to bring Italianate Renaissance architecture to England...

 was commissioned to design and build one for the Surgeon-Barbers, but died (1652) before it was finished. The work was completed by John Webb in 1636, but this theatre was destroyed by the Great Fire (1666). It was rebuilt to the design of Christopher Wren

Christopher Wren

Sir Christopher Wren FRS is one of the most highly acclaimed English architects in history.He used to be accorded responsibility for rebuilding 51 churches in the City of London after the Great Fire in 1666, including his masterpiece, St. Paul's Cathedral, on Ludgate Hill, completed in 1710...

, but demolished in 1740, when the Surgeons transferred their work to the Royal College. The dissected corpses were buried in the churchyard of St Olave's, Silver Street

St Olave's, Silver Street

St Olave, Silver Street was a church dedicated to St Olaf on Silver Street the City of London....

.

External links

• The Barbers' Company
• Barber Surgeons’ Hall Gardens, London Wall (MOLAS
  Museum of London Archaeology Service
  Museum of London Archaeology is a Registered Archaeological Organisation with the Institute of Field Archaeologists and is a self-financing part of the Museum of London Group, providing a wide range of professional archaeological services to clients in London, SE England, the UK and...
  
  ) archeological survey March 1997