The Old Library, Guildhall
Picture left: Top row, left to right: Painter-Stainers, Plumbers, Poulters, Tylers and Bricklayers, Scriveners
Centre row: Turners, Loriners, Bowyers, Spectacle Makers, Wheelwrights
Bottom row: Masons, Coachmakers, Glass Sellers, Clockmakers, Plaisterers
The Bowyers' Window.
At the Court Meeting held on 30th September 1872 at the London Tavern, an application was considered from the London & Middlesex Archaeological Society. It was resolved that the Company would pay £10 10s 0d for a stained glass window in the new Guildhall Library on its satisfactory completion.
The window is not mentioned again in the Court Minutes but it was indeed completed and it can still be seen on the staircase of what is now known as the Old Library. The window, which faces onto Basinghall Street, consists of 15 heraldic panels containing the arms of the following livery companies: Painter-Stainers, Plumbers, Poulters, Tylers and Bricklayers, Scriveners, Turners, Loriners, Bowyers, Spectacle Makers, Wheelwrights, Masons, Coachmakers, Glass Sellers, Clockmakers and Plaisterers
The Bowyers' Arms take pride-of-place in the centre of the window.
The Old Library was completed in 1872 to the design of Horace Jones, the City Corporation Architect, at a cost of £50,000 and was opened in November of that year.