BJJ News
Fig. 2 Barber-Surgeons’ Hall
eventually becoming in 1800, The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The Company of Barbers remained on their own in Barber-Surgeons Hall, though relatively impoverished, and needing from time to time to rent out part of their building, and sell some of their books, and silver. The records remain, however, and it is clear that over the next century one or two surgeons became members of the Barbers’ Company, perhaps for historical reasons. In 1919 however, a joint lectureship was established, with the Royal College of Surgeons, to be held annually in honour of Thomas Vicary, who had been instrumental, as Serjeant Surgeon to Henry Vlll and Master Barber at the time of the Act of Union, in obtaining both full recognition of the joint Company at that time, but also and more importantly, the establishment of anatomical teaching for the surgeons. The Vicar y Lecture, usually on an anatomical topic, and often of an historical nature has continued ever since, apart from during the last war, and it was the giving of the 92nd Vicary Lecture which stimulated David Jones, the 2014 Vicary Lecturer, to record, in a letter to BJJ News, the coincidence that he was giving the
Lecture, as an orthopaedic surgeon, and that the President of The Royal College of Surgeons, Clare Marx, is an orthopaedic surgeon, as am I, as Master of The Barbers’ Company. It is worth pointing out that neither Clare nor I had made the choice of David to be the lecturer, as neither Clare nor I had been elected when that choice was made. Many of the great names of surgery in London, including Thomas Vicary and Charles Bernard were members of The Company of Barbers and Surgeons. John Caius was probably the first Reader of Anatomy before he went to Cambridge. Edward Arris, Thomas Gale, William Clowes and William Cheselden were all BarberSurgeons, as was the great herbalist, John Gerard who was Master in 1607. The Barbers Company today is made up of about 240 liverymen, and 45 Freemen, and about one third are medical, of whom most are surgeons, or dental surgeons. The Company, now more than 700 years old, is one of the oldest of the 110 Livery Companies in the City of London. Of the old Companies, only 35 still have their own Halls, as so many were lost in 1666 and then again in The Blitz of 1940.
Barber-Surgeons Hall was destroyed again in 1940, and rebuilding was not allowed immediately by the City of London Corporation who had plans to develop the site, in Monkwell Street, as it then was, as part of the Barbican Centre of apartments, galleries, and schools. However, in 1965 The Corporation decided that BarberSurgeons Hall could be rebuilt, but no longer was it to be attached to the old Roman Wall, as it had been for over 500 years. They agreed that it could be rebuilt 30 feet away from the wall, to the South, in a new square, to be called Monkwell Square. The New Hall was completed and opened by The Queen Mother in 1969. Like many other rebuilt Livery Halls it was rebuilt with lettable space in its upper floors, which produces useful income. Some of the older Companies, and most of the so-called Modern Companies, stipulate that Liverymen should pay a subscription, known as Quarterage, but in the Barbers’ Company a ‘fine’ is paid on entry, and it is expected that members should contribute to the Company’s Charities. Like most other Livery Companies in the city, and indeed in other great cities of the country, and of Scotland, the sole purpose of the Company is charitable
11