Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The Dyers' Company is long established in the City with mediaeval origins in the trade of cloth and leather dyeing. Hazlitt's "Livery Companies of the City of London" mentions a reference to the company in 1362 and also says that the Dyers are held to rank as the first of the Minor livery companies. The Dyers' Company shares the distinction, with the Vintners' Company, of being the only institution, apart from the Crown, which may keep swans on the Thames. The company's original hall was in Upper Thames Street and was destroyed in the Great Fire. A subsequent hall was also seriously damaged by fire in 1681 and the company suffered in the bombing raid of December 1940 when many records were destroyed (though Hazlitt commented in 1892 on the scarcity of Dyers' Company historical documents).
The Dyers' Company had almshouses at Ball's Pond Road, Islington (1851-1938) and at Crawley in Sussex (1938-).