| Soli Deo Honor et Gloria | |
|---|---|
| The Leathersellers' Coat of Arms | |
| Location: | The Leathersellers' Company, 21 Garlick Hill, London EC4V 2AU |
| Date of formation: | 1444 |
| Company association: | Leather industries |
| Order of precedence: | 15th |
| Master of company: | Miles Emley |
| Motto: | Soli Deo Honor et Gloria |
| Website: | The Leathersellers' Company |
The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The organisation originated in the latter part of the fourteenth century and received a Royal Charter in 1444. The Company, which originally regulated leather merchants, continues to act as an advocate for the UK leather trade, though it is now primarily a philanthropic organisation active in many charitable and educational fields.
The Leathersellers' Company ranks fifteenth in the order of precedence of Livery Companies. The Company's motto is Soli Deo Honor et Gloria, Latin for Honour and Glory to God Alone.
The Company is very closely linked with the Leathersellers' Federation of Schools (formerly Prendergast School), now comprising Prendergast Hilly Fields College, Prendergast Ladywell Fields College and Prendergast Vale College, all located in the London Borough of Lewisham. Since the mid-seventeenth century the Company has also been closely linked with Colfe's School, today an independent co-educational school located in Lee, near Lewisham, London. In addition the Company supports and maintains its longstanding connection with the Institute for Creative Leather Technologies (now a part of the University of Northampton), the successor of the College which the Company founded in Bermondsey in 1909 as Leathersellers' Technical College. The Company continues to support higher education through exhibitions (grants) to university students, a practice which began in 1603 when four 'poor scholars', two at Oxford and two at Cambridge, were awarded five guineas each per annum. Today around 100 students receive exhibitions which enable them to study at various universities.
The Company is affiliated with the Royal Navy's submarine HMS Tireless and with 1st The Queen's Dragoon Guards. Like many other Livery Companies, it has a long tradition of maintaining almshouses, and since 1837 has done so at Barnet in north London.
The Company has had six Halls since its foundation, and is currently in temporary accommodation in Garlick Hill while its seventh Hall is being constructed. The first was on London Wall but in 1543 the Company acquired the former Benedictine convent of St Helen, off Bishopsgate, and the subsequent Halls have all been on that site, now called St Helen's Place. The fifth Hall was destroyed in May 1941 during the London blitz. The sixth Hall was officially opened in 1960 and was demolished in 2011, though the facade of the building has been retained. A new, seventh Hall is being built in St Helen's Place to designs by Eric Parry R.A. and is expected to be completed by 2015.