December 21, 2012 7:06 pm

British institutions: livery companies

No other nation is as skilful at letting the past merge into the present, and nowhere more so than the City of London
  • Staircase at Goldsmiths’ Hall
    The grand main staircase at Goldsmiths’ Hall, close to St Paul’s Cathedral, London
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • A 19th-century sculpture of Nestor and Telemachus at the hall’s entrance
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • The “Leopard’s Head”, the symbol of the company’s assay office and the premier hallmark in the UK
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • Goldsmiths’ Hall’s wood-panelled exhibition room
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • Chandeliers in the Goldsmiths’ Hall
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • Richard Melly, clerk, The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • Amanda Stucklin, the company’s press officer. The Goldsmiths are so far the only company to employ one
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • A workbench at the Goldsmiths’ Centre, Clerkenwell, which opened in early 2012 and houses workshops, exhibition spaces and a café
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • “The combination of education and training alongside workspace [at the Goldsmiths’ Centre] is pretty unique,” says its director, Peter Taylor
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • A board showing elements for making a single-stone ring, used as a teaching aid on courses at the Goldsmiths’ Centre
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • Spoons crafted during a course for pre-apprentices; right is a student’s design, centre is a copper practice piece and left is the finished silver piece
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • Shelves stacked with various hammers and tools used for goldsmithing
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • The laboratory in the assay office in the Goldsmiths’ Hall building, where the quality of gold and silver is checked
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • Danny Love, workshop engineer in the Goldsmiths’ assay office
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • Ventilation equipment in a workshop at the Goldsmiths’ Centre
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • A pantograph engraving machine used for cutting hallmarks or sponsors’ marks
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • Dave Merry, head of assay office training and trading standards liaison at Goldsmiths’ Hall, with his apprentice Candice Devine
    ©Rick Pushinsky
  • The Information Technologists’ Hall, laid out for a lunch with schoolchildren from Lilian Baylis Technology School
    ©Rick Pushinsky
Previous image
Next image
Next Thumbnails
Previous Thumbnails

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2013. You may share using our article tools. Please don't cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web.