task." He prepared his plans for rebuilding the city, and laid them before
the King. That part of Sir Christopher's plan which relates to the present
subjects, was as follows: "By the water-side, from the bridge to the
Temple, he had planned a long and broad wharf or quay, where he designed
to have arranged all the halls that belong to the several companies of the
city, with proper warehouses for merchants between, to vary the edifices,
and make it at once one of the most beautiful ranges of structure in the
world."[1] King Charles, however, as Mr. Cunningham observes, "was never
obstinate in any thing for his country's good," and the idea was dropped:
but Wren erected the above Hall as a specimen of his intention of
ornamenting the banks of the Thames. The original hall was destroyed by
the Great Fire.

The ancient importance of the Fishmongers' Company may be thus explained:--

During the days of papacy in England, fish was an article not of optional,
but compulsive consumption, and this rendered the business of a fishmonger
one of the principal trades of London. Fish Street Hill, and the immediate
vicinity, was the great mart for this branch of traffic, from its close
connexion with the river, and here lived many illustrious citizens,
particularly Sir William Walworth, and Sir Stephen Fisher.

Strong prejudices were however entertained against the fishmongers, and to
so great an extent was it carried, that in the fourteenth century, they
prayed the king, by Nicholas Exton, one of their body, that he would take
the company under his protection, "lest they might receive corporeal hurt."
The parliament itself appears to have imbibed the general distrust, for in
1382 they enacted, "that no fishmonger should be mayor of the city." This
was repealed, however, the following year.