Much of the first Hall was destroyed by the great fire in 1666. A further tragedy occurred in 1940 when the hall was completely destroyed by enemy action. These disasters paved the way for the building of the present hall, which was opened in may 1969 by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.
Charters dating back to 1462, and the Act of Parliament of 1540 when Henry VIII incorporated the Barbers and the Surgeons, can be seen. This event was commemorated by Hans Holbein in the famous picture which hangs in the Great Hall, showing the King handing the document to Thomas Vicary, his Sergeant-Surgeon and Master of the company.
The herb garden is one of the interesting features of Barber-Surgeons’ Hall. In 122 AD the Roman Emperor Hadrian built a stone wall around London and in about 300 AD defensive bastions were added to contain ballistas which were spring guns to shoot iron bolts at an enemy. The garden is situated in bastion number 13. On the initiative of Past-Master Sir Francis Avery Jones the present garden, only our second one, was commenced in 1987. It was constructed on a derelict bomb site by Liveryman David Jones of the Open Spaces Department of the Corporation of London who supplied original Victorian tile edging to define the plots.
