Ancient Halls of the City Guilds

Whilst the greatest effort has been made to ensure the quality of this text, due to the historical nature of this content, in some rare cases there may be minor issues with legibility. How differently our city has grown up from those delightful old towns in Flanders, where the homes of the Guilds are built round the sides of some great square, with the Hotel de Ville or great market building with its vast belfry as a dominating feature - and even too, as at Brussels, the ancient palace of the kings. It is a pity that the same scheme was not carried out in London, and a great square made, with the Guildhall as the dominating feature. Then perhaps there would have been less temptation to the Com panics to rebuild their halls, giving over the frontages to blocks of offices and banks. The value of these sites is now so enormous that there are but few Companies which have not given way to the temptation.