The Salters' Hall

The Salters' Hall

This livery company hall with offices was designed in 1967 and built between 1972 and 1976. The John S Bonnington Partnership executed the project, with Sir Basil Spence, then near the end of his career, having early conceptual design involvement. The interior was fitted out and designed by the interior designers David Hicks and Patrick Garnett.

The building is a rectangular structure on Fore Street, comprising four storeys of lettable office space surmounted by a double-height hall with further Salters' accommodation on floors 5 and 6. It is constructed with an in situ concrete frame clad with aluminium curtain wall on the lower office floors, fitted with smoke-coloured glass. The upper floors feature ribbed, knapped and bush-hammered concrete that was painted in 1992.

At Fore Street level, the building presents a semi-open porte-cochere defined by pilotis. Central wrought iron gates dated 1887, featuring birds and delicate foliate decoration, are retained from the previous hall; a name plaque is positioned to the left. Above this, four bays of office accommodation are divided by concrete piers, with aluminium-framed smoked-glass windows on the north and south faces, except for the north-east bay which is blank to accommodate lifts.

The exterior is dominated by the projecting floors 5 and 6, which extend beyond the footprint of the floors below. Floor 5 wraps around, blind to the north side, with windows and the Salters' coat of arms in bronzed GRP on the south. From the west end rises the two-storey main hall, while from the east end extends a three-storey stair tower flanked by a taller lift shaft. Floors 6 and 7 contain the Salters' offices, expressed externally through smaller windows in aluminium frames. The building connects with a high-level walkway to the east.

The Fore Street level is lined in Travertine, with a Travertine staircase and lifts serving upper floors. The rented offices on floors 1 to 4 were designed as open plan and have been modernised, and are of limited special interest internally.

The principal interior interest lies in the livery suite on the upper floors. Floor 5 contains the long Entrance Lobby with a shallow vaulted ceiling lit from above. The main cantilever staircase begins here, featuring Travertine skirting with a smoked glass balustrade and silver bronze handrail. To the south is the square Court Room with a low tray ceiling (formerly octagonal but now square) and panelled with Coral Rosewood; the adjacent Anteroom is Travertine lined. This leads to the double-height Livery Hall, fully lined in fluted or reeded ash panelling with corner windows and a gallery. The panelling's fluting is more tightly spaced in the lower half of the wall and is acutely coved at the top, ending to reveal a slightly higher gently curved ceiling that cleverly conceals the vents. The kitchen and service rooms to the west are not of special interest. Floor 6 contains the Ladies' Dining Room with a gallery overlooking the livery hall. Floor 7 retains the Salters' offices, also subject to some alteration.

The medieval hall of the Salters' Company, founded in 1394, was originally in Bread Street and was rebuilt in the seventeenth century in St Swithin's Lane. The building was reconstructed several times, including after being destroyed in the Great Fire. The Salters' suffered devastating loss during the second wave of major City of London damage when the handsome hall of 1823-1827 by Henry Carr was destroyed in an air raid in May 1941. Fortunately, the gates of 1887 were salvaged and re-used in the present building.