Qualla: Guildhall, London https://qualla.com/guildhall-london en-us © 2026 Bendyline Wed, 08 Jul 2026 02:40:14 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/guildhall-london-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Guildhall, London https://qualla.com/guildhall-london Guildhall, London: Introduction https://qualla.com/guildhall-london/ Photo credit Prioryman, CC BY-SA 4.0. A black circle painted on the paving of Guildhall Yard marks the outline of an arena that almost no one walked over for nearly two thousand years. The Roman amphitheatre beneath, built around 70 AD and once the largest in Roman Britain, was rediscovered as recently as 1988. Archaeological excavations at the entrance to the yard later turned up the foundations of a great thirteenth-century gatehouse built directly over the amphitheatre's southern entrance, suggesting that medieval Londoners could still see enough of the Roman stones to plan around them. The strange alignment of the nearby church of St Lawrence Jewry may even shadow the buried elliptical arena. The Guildhall standing on the site today, begun in 1411, is at least the third major civic building to rise on that same Roman ground, and it has been the ceremonial heart of the City of London for at least nine centuries.

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Image: Prioryman | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/guildhall-london-wp/gcpv-guildhall-london-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Guildhall, London: From Roman Stones to Anglo-Saxon Hall https://qualla.com/guildhall-london/ Photo credit JRennocks, CC BY-SA 4.0. The first documentary reference to a London Guildhall is dated 1127 or 1128; archaeologists have found foundations from around that time. The siting of the Anglo-Saxon Guildhall here was probably no accident, the Roman amphitheatre's remains likely still visible enough to inform ...

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Image: JRennocks | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/guildhall-london-wp/gcpv-guildhall-london-from-roman-stones-to-anglo-saxon-hall.mp3 0:06 2 full Guildhall, London: The Hall the Trades Built https://qualla.com/guildhall-london/ Photo credit Eluveitie, CC BY-SA 3.0. Construction on the present Great Hall began in 1411 and was completed in 1440 under the supervision of John Croxton. It was paid for in large part by the City's livery companies, the medieval trade guilds that gave the building its name. The Great Hall did not completely escape ...

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Image: Eluveitie | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/guildhall-london-wp/gcpv-guildhall-london-the-hall-the-trades-built.mp3 0:06 3 full Guildhall, London: Chopin's Last Concert https://qualla.com/guildhall-london/ Photo credit Ewan Munro from London, UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. On 16 November 1848, with his health failing, the Polish-French composer Frederic Chopin gave a benefit concert at Guildhall. The audience was small, the lighting was poor, and Chopin himself was so weak that he had to be carried up the stairs. It was his last public appearance o...

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Image: Ewan Munro from London, UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/guildhall-london-wp/gcpv-guildhall-london-chopins-last-concert.mp3 0:06 4 full Guildhall, London: The Blitz and the Giants https://qualla.com/guildhall-london/ Photo credit Elias Gayles from USA, CC BY 2.0. The two great wooden statues of Gog and Magog, carved in 1708 by Captain Richard Saunders, stood in the Guildhall for more than two hundred years. They had replaced earlier carvings destroyed in the Great Fire. In December 1940, German bombs reduced the Saunders giants to ashes d...

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Image: Elias Gayles from USA | CC BY 2.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/guildhall-london-wp/gcpv-guildhall-london-the-blitz-and-the-giants.mp3 0:06 5 full Guildhall, London: The Banquet and the Annus Horribilis https://qualla.com/guildhall-london/ Photo credit Colin, CC BY-SA 3.0. Guildhall remains the headquarters of the City of London Corporation, and the older parts of the building are still used for the City's grand ceremonies. The most famous is the Lord Mayor's Banquet, held each year in honour of the outgoing Lord Mayor and traditionally the venue f...

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Image: Colin | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Tue, 19 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/g/c/p/v/guildhall-london-wp/gcpv-guildhall-london-the-banquet-and-the-annus-horribilis.mp3 0:06 6 full