Entrance to The Carpenter's Hall in Throgmorton Avenue - geograph

The Worshipful Company of Carpenters is a livery company of the

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

. The Carpenters were traditionally different from a fellow wood-crafting company, the

Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers The Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers is one of the livery companies in the City of London. The Guild of St James Garlickhythe, the company's predecessor, named after the church where it was founded, was formed in 1375. The organization ...

, in that carpenters utilised nails while joiners used adhesives to attach

wood Wood is a porous and fibrous structural tissue found in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulose fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin ...

. The organisation existed in 1271; it received a

Royal Charter A royal charter is a formal grant issued by a monarch under royal prerogative as letters patent. Historically, they have been used to promulgate public laws, the most famous example being the English Magna Carta (great charter) of 1215, b ...

of incorporation in 1477. As is the case with most of the other livery companies, the Company no longer has a role as a trade association of tradesmen and craftsmen. Instead, it acts as a charitable institution and supports education in wood-related fields. In 1767 the Company purchased an estate at Stratford, London. In 1886 it opened an evening institute on the Carpenters Estate there, offering classes in carpentry, joinery, plumbing, geometry, mechanical drawing and cookery. In 1891, the Carpenter's Institute had become a day school for boys. The school closed in 1905 when the local authority opened its own school. The Company ranks twenty-sixth in the

order of precedence An order of precedence is a sequential hierarchy of nominal importance and can be applied to individuals, groups, or organizations. Most often it is used in the context of people by many organizations and governments, for very formal and state o ...

of livery companies. The Company's motto is "Honour God". Its guild church is All Hallows-on-the-Wall, where the Company has held its annual elections for over 600 years. The livery hall, Carpenters Hall, is at Throgmorton Avenue; it is a Grade II listed building. Founded in 1724, the

Carpenters' Company of the City and County of Philadelphia The Carpenters’ Company of the City and County of Philadelphia is the oldest extant craft guild in the United States. Founded in 1724, the Company consists of nearly 200 prominent Philadelphia area architects, building contractors and structura ...

was modelled after the Worshipful Company of Carpenters.

References

External links

London Building C

The Carpenters' Company

Carpenters Company in London
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History
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The Carpenters' Company Coat of Arms

Apprentices' Entry Books 1654-94
records of apprentices entering the company. Originally edited by Bower Marsh for the Company in 1913; here part of British History Online.
Information and Court/Committee Minute Books 1721-1800 searchable by name of Sam Newman at London Lives
Carpenters' trade unions Carpenters 13th-century establishments in England {{London-stub