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[MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Eleni Bide, and I'm the Librarian for the Goldsmith's Company. There have been goldsmiths in the City of London for well over

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1,000 years. We find pieces of Roman gold when there are archaeological digs around the City of London all the time.

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And we know that goldsmiths have been organising themselves for many, many centuries, as well. One of the earliest references to a group of organised goldsmiths goes back to 1180,

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when in a pipe roll, a group of illegal goldsmiths in an adulterine guild is mentioned. And there's quite a hefty fine because they shouldn't have been getting together and organising

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without the right permission. So we can see goldsmiths are trading. They're an important part of the fabric of the City of London, as I say, for well over 1,000 years.

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They start to get official recognition around the beginning of the 14th century. And 1327 is the date that they get their first Royal Charter. So this is one of the first bits of really solid official

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recognition that these groups of goldsmiths have obtained. And their Royal Charter covers lots of different points, which show how important goldsmiths are to this city, and also to the economy of London, as well.

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It covers things like regulating the trade through ensuring good quality of workmanship, through things like hallmarking. It covers the taking of apprentices and training

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the next generation of goldsmiths, ensuring that good standards of craftsmanship are prevalent throughout the trade. And it also talks a little bit about bullion, as well.

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And I think this is where you see the real importance of goldsmiths, not just through their work producing fantastic, luxury objects, but also because the materials that they're working with,

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gold and silver, also are the materials which the coin of the realm is made from. And there's a really fluid relationship between gold and silver consumer objects and money.

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And that makes goldsmiths especially important to the economy and something that the government is interested in regulating, as well.

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So we have goldsmiths here at the beginning of the 14th century with their first Royal Charter in their early years, doing the things that actually become their guiding mission throughout the nearly 700 years that the Goldsmith's Company has

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been in existence. So it's regulating the trade through ensuring good standards. It's training the next generation of goldsmiths, and it's also things like looking after fellow goldsmiths

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and the wider community. So charity becomes an enormously important part of what the Goldsmith's Company does. And you can see that in some of our very early minutes, as well.

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There's been a Goldsmiths' Hall on this site, on Foster Lane in the City of London, since 1339. So the Goldsmith's Company holds the longest tenure in any one site for any livery company in the City of London.

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Before it gained its first hall in 1339, we think that early goldsmiths are meeting in each other's houses, or maybe in the pub. So the Goldsmith's Company has, perhaps, not quite

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as glamorous a beginning in terms of its home as the building that we find ourselves in today. But in 1339, 19 goldsmiths clubbed together and they buy a fairly straightforward merchant's house

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on Foster Lane, which is where the current Goldsmiths' Hall is. Over the centuries, that hall is added to, bits are built on and improved. In the beginning of the 17th century,

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the Goldsmith's Company decides to start again. And they demolished that building and they built a new one in the fashionable Palladian style, with advice from the very early architect Inigo Jones, as well.

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So this is a very fashionable building. That building lasts until the 19th century. But at the beginning of the 19th century, it's in quite a state of disrepair.

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We know that they are afraid to dance in their building because they're worried that they might go through the floor. So the Goldsmith's Company decides it's going to start again for a third time.

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It demolishes the 17th century building, it auctions off quite a lot of the contents, and it commissions a new hall, which is bigger and grander than the previous iterations.

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That hall is designed by the architect Philip Hardwick, and it's opened in 1835 to quite a big fanfare. And this is the building that we find ourselves in today. But the reason it's here goes back

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to the early origins of the Goldsmith's Company. This area of the City of London was known as the goldsmithery, so this would be a concentration of shops, workshops, and homes of working goldsmiths.

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And, of course, this is why they wanted their hall on this site. It's really close and convenient to them. The hall is used for a wide range of different purposes, really, from its very early beginnings.

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We know that it's used for sociability. Sociability and the building of fellowship is enormously important. The Goldsmith's Company is a community,

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as well as an organisation, that carries out things like regulation and training. So we know that there are lots of community events. There is dining, there are feasts,

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there are cakes and ales that come together and happen. So people have a good time in the building. But they also sort out their disputes, so this is where very serious business might be transacted,

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and the business of the Goldsmith's Company, which might be the paying of rents, for example, and sorting out the company's finances. Meetings to deal with those subjects

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happen in Goldsmiths Hall. And when goldsmiths disagree with each other, they might come to Goldsmiths' Hall to have the wardens of the company try

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and arbitrate between their problems. If a goldsmith does something wrong, for example, infringes hallmarking legislation, produces substandard wares, they might be summoned to the hall

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and they might be disciplined and fined. So that's also definitely something that happens. But also, apprentices are bound here. So this is the start of the training journey, this building,

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for generations upon generations of goldsmiths, too. And really importantly, from the end of the 15th century, we have the company's first assay office-- in fact, the United Kingdom's first assay office in Goldsmiths' Hall.

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And this is where the word hallmark comes from. It is all about the mark put on an item in this building in the hall. So we have what is, in effect, a factory setup, or a laboratory,

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a little bit of both, a scientific laboratory, and a manufactory from 1478 in this building. And that continues to the present day. Hallmarking is one of the UK's oldest forms

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of consumer protection, and it actually starts before the company even gets its first Royal Charter. So the first piece of hallmarking legislation is passed in 1300, where the King asks

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the guardians of the craft-- and by this, we understand to mean the wardens of the as yet unofficial Goldsmith's Company-- to go around shop to shop and test goldsmiths

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works being sold to the general public, so items of gold and silver. And these items are now supposed to come up to certain levels of purity.

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So something called the touch of Paris for gold wares, which is around 22 carats, and sterling silver that we're familiar with today for silver objects. And if these items are sufficiently

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pure so they have enough precious metal in them, they will be stamped with a special mark known as the King's mark. And this becomes known as the leopard's head of London.

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And it's particularly associated with the London Assay Office. And you can see leopard's heads all around this building, Goldsmiths' Hall, in honour of that. Now, over the centuries, hallmarking law

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becomes more complicated. You have additional marks showing who made something, a date letter showing who is responsible for testing it, for example.

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And over the centuries, even more marks denoting the payment of tax, for example, are added to the hallmarking system. Hallmarking is still going, and we still

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have an assay office operating here on site in Goldsmiths' Hall. So if you buy a piece of gold, or silver, or platinum, or palladium in the UK today, it should

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have a valid hallmark on it, and it might have been marked in this building. [MUSIC PLAYING] My name is Sophie Leverington, and I'm the Archivist

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for the Goldsmith's Company. So as archivist, I am mainly responsible for the preservation of the archives to ensure that they are able to be accessed as history goes on.

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So somebody in the future can come in and they will still be in the same state as they are in today. I'm also responsible for the promotion of access to the archives.

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So that involves things such as cataloguing the material, involvement in the digitization process, and then also, making those resources available online. So anywhere, anyone around the world can access those.

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The Goldsmith's Company archive holds records starting from 1334 and continuing to the present day. These include the corporate records of the Goldsmith's Company, and also acquired collections

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relating to the goldsmithing and silversmithing industry in the UK. Now, immediately we can see that these records are hugely historically significant because they cover

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almost 700 years of history. And these make-- this makes it an incredibly valuable resource for those people who come to use them. So one of the key records that we hold are our Court Minutes.

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Now, these are some of our earliest records. And they, in fact, start from 1334. And these are really crucial as they not only record the comings and goings of the company, what

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was said in our Court Meetings, but they also have several references as history goes on to hallmarking, which is one of the cornerstones of the Goldsmith's Company and the Assay Office's work.

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Looking towards our Books of Ordinances, these are very important records, as they hold references to rules and guidelines that members of the Goldsmith's Company

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were supposed to follow in order to be a sensible member of the company. And these also contain oaths that members of staff or freemen were expected to take before they were admitted.

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The Court Minute books, when they first started, would have been written by senior members of the Goldsmith's Company. But when we get towards the 14th century,

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we see that they are written by a employed scribe. And this is one of the first instances of a salaried member of staff at the Goldsmith's Company. So here in front of me, I have very first Court Book

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in the Goldsmith's Company archives. Now, this is a really interesting volume, as it's written entirely in Anglo-Norman French. Now, originally, this would have been

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a bit of an issue in terms of an everyday person accessing the document. But luckily, we have had it translated so we're able to freely access the information inside.

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So on this very first page, you can see that we have references to apprentices that are being bound in the Hall. And we can also see that fines are

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being paid by members of the company who have been found to have committed offences in terms of providing substandard work to a customer. So again, we can see the Goldsmith's Company has

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strong ties to protecting the consumer within the goldsmith's trade. So in front of me, I have the Second Book of Ordinances. And we have two Books of Ordinances,

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and they are, essentially, a rule book for members and staff of the company to follow. So they contain ordinances, which are the guidelines themselves, specific behaviours, and also oaths that were to be

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taken by freemen or members of staff at the company. So in this first page that I have opened here, we can see that this section of the book was approved by the Privy Council of Henry the VIII.

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So that dates the book, this section of the book, to around 1514. And then, if I turn through, again, we can see references to assaying in the Goldsmith's

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Company and the standards to which craftsmen were to follow. And interestingly here, we have an ordinance on the behaviour, the expected behaviour, of members of the company. So it says here that no man of the same craft

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shall smite or slander another member. So that gives you an idea of what sort of things are expected from members of the Goldsmith's Company. So here are the accounts for the Wardens

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of the Goldsmith's Company. So this book here starts in 1687. And it gives a really great window into the context of what the Goldsmith's Company was

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doing at the time. So here, we have monies borrowed by debts, so it gives you an idea of the financial state of the company at the time, but also, casual payments.

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So things relating to events, entertaining at the company, maybe anything to do with that would be noted down here. These records are available to view in person, and it's excellent because you can come in and see them in situ

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in wonderful Goldsmiths' Hall. [MUSIC PLAYING]