A guildhall, also known as a guild hall or guild house, is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

, with many surviving today in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of continental Europe, consisting of the countries England, Scotland, and Wales. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the List of European ...

and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in some cases

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

s while retaining their original names.

As town hall in the United Kingdom

In the United Kingdom, a guildhall is usually a town hall: in the vast majority of cases, the guildhalls have never served as the meeting place of any specific guild. A suggested etymology is from the Anglo Saxon "''gild'', or "payment"; the guildhall being where citizens came to pay their rates. The London Guildhall was established around 1120. For the Scottish municipal equivalent see

tolbooth A tolbooth or town house was the main municipal building of a Scotland, Scottish burgh, from medieval times until the 19th century. The tolbooth usually provided a council meeting chamber, a court house and a jail. The tolbooth was one of th ...

List of guildhalls in the United Kingdom

* Andover Guildhall * Barnstaple Guildhall * Bath Guildhall * Beverley Guildhall * Bewdley Guildhall * Blakeney Guildhall * Bodmin Guildhall * Boston Guildhall * Bradninch Guildhall * Brecon Guildhall * Bristol Guildhall * Bury St Edmunds Guildhall *

Cambridge Guildhall Cambridge Guildhall is a civic building in the centre of the historic city of Cambridge, England. It includes two halls, ''The Large Hall'' and ''The Small Hall'', and is used for many disparate events such as comedy acts, conferences, craft fai ...

* Canterbury Guildhall * Cardigan Guildhall * Carmarthen Guildhall * Chard Guildhall * Chester Guildhall * Chichester Guildhall * Conwy Guildhall * Derby Guildhall * Devonport Guildhall * Dunfermline Guildhall * Derry Guildhall * Exeter Guildhall * Faversham Guildhall * Gloucester Guildhall * Grantham Guildhall * Guildford Guildhall * Harwich Guildhall * Helston Guildhall * High Wycombe Guildhall * Hull Guildhall * King's Lynn Guildhall * Guildhall of St George, Kings Lynn * Kingston upon Thames Guildhall * Lavenham Guildhall * Leicester Guildhall * Lichfield Guildhall * Lincoln Guildhall *

Liskeard Guildhall Liskeard Guildhall is a municipal building in Pike Street, Liskeard, Cornwall, England. The structure, which was the meeting place of Liskeard Borough Council, is a Grade II* listed building. History The first municipal building in the town was ...

* Llantrisant Guildhall * London Guildhall * Looe Guildhall * Lostwithiel Guildhall * Lydd Guildhall * Lyme Regis Guildhall * Middlesex Guildhall * Much Wenlock Guildhall * Newcastle-under-Lyme Guildhall * Newcastle upon Tyne Guildhall * Merchant Adventurers' Hall, York * Newport Guildhall, Isle of Wight * Newport Guildhall, Shropshire *

Northampton Guildhall Northampton Guildhall is a municipal building in St Giles' Square in Northampton, England. It is a Grade II* listed building. History The first guildhall in Northampton was a 12th-century building at the junction of Gold Street and Horsemarke ...

* Norwich Guildhall * Oswestry Guildhall * Peterborough Guildhall * Plymouth Guildhall * Plympton Guildhall * Poole Guildhall * Portsmouth Guildhall * Preston Guildhall * Rochester Guildhall * Salisbury Guildhall * Saltash Guildhall * Sandwich Guildhall * Southampton Guildhall * South Molton Guildhall * St Ives Guildhall * St Mary's Guildhall, Coventry * Stratford-upon-Avon Guildhall * Swansea Guildhall * Thaxted Guildhall * Thetford Guildhall * Totnes Guildhall * Weymouth Guildhall * Winchester Guildhall * Windsor Guildhall * Worcester Guildhall * Wrexham Guildhall * York Guildhall File:Windsorguildhall.jpg, Windsor Guildhall in

Windsor, Berkshire Windsor is a historic town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in Berkshire, England. It is the site of Windsor Castle, one of the official residences of the Monarchy of the United Kingdom, British monarch. The town is situated we ...

also served as market, town hall and courtroom File:London Guildhall.jpg, Guildhall, London, in the

City of London The City of London, also known as ''the City'', is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and Districts of England, local government district with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in England. It is the Old town, his ...

, is the seat of the Corporation of London, the governing body of the city. File:Northampton Guildhall.jpg, Guildhall, Northampton File:Guildhall, Chester.jpg, Guildhall, Chester

As meeting houses for guilds

Limmatquai - Zunfthaus zur Zimmerleuten 2010-10-08 14-49-14 ShiftN

A type of guild was known in Roman times. Known as ''collegium'', ''collegia'' or ''corpus'', these were organised groups of merchants who specialised in a particular craft and whose membership of the group was voluntary. One such example is the ''corpus naviculariorum'', the college of long-distance shippers based at Rome's port, Ostia Antica. The Roman guilds failed to survive the collapse of the Roman Empire. Merchant guilds were reinvented during Europe's medieval period. In England, these guilds went by many different names including: fraternity, brotherhood, college, company, corporation, fellowship, livery, or society, amongst other terms. In Europe, merchant guilds were known as "natie", "consulado", or "hansa". A fraternity, formed by the merchants of Tiel in Gelderland (present-day Netherlands), in 1020 is believed to be the first example of a medieval guild. The first instance of usage of the term, "guild", was the ''gilda mercatoria'' used to describe a body of merchants operating out of Saint-Omer, France in the 11th century and London's '' Hanse'' was formed in the 12th century. The merchants of

Cologne Cologne ( ; ; ) is the largest city of the States of Germany, German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with nearly 1.1 million inhabitants in the city pr ...

had their house in London as early as 1157 and the Guilda Teutonicorum (German merchants warehouse) was located at Cosin Lane and Thames Street in London on the 12th century. These guilds controlled the way that trade was conducted in their region and codified rules governing the conditions of trade. Once established, merchant guild rules were often incorporated into the charters granted to

market town A market town is a settlement most common in Europe that obtained by custom or royal charter, in the Middle Ages, a market right, which allowed it to host a regular market; this distinguished it from a village or city. In Britain, small rura ...

s. By the 13th and 14th centuries, merchant guilds had acquired sufficient resources to erect guild halls in many major market towns. Medieval guild halls were used to store goods and as places for celebratory events. When not required for guild members' events, the hall often became place where townspeople could hold entertainments such as Passion plays. Guild members often cleaned streets, removed rubbish, maintained a nightwatch and provided food relief to the poor. Some medieval guilds allowed market trading to occur on the ground floor of the guildhall. In the

, the guilds are called " livery companies", and their guild halls are called livery halls.

In the Low Countries

The Low Countries used to have guildhalls in every city, often one ''gildenhuis'' (Dutch, literally "guild house") for each trade. They were often elaborate, ornate buildings, demonstrating the guild's status. Occasionally a single hall would be used by all the city's guilds. The guildhall was used as the offices of the ''deken'' (deacon) and other guild officers, and for meetings by the ''overlieden'' (board of directors). The guild members would occasionally be called to the guildhall for meetings on important matters.Johannes Gouw, ''De gilden: eene bijdrage tot de geschiedenis van het volksleven''. Portielje & Zoon, 1866, p. 38 (Dutch) The guildhall of the merchants' guild also served as de facto market place. Therefore, there was no need in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

for a separate building for this purpose. In the Low Countries, each guildhall was marked by the coat of arms of that guild, hanging from the facade of the building. Occasionally, the coat of arms was replaced with a gable stone depicting a member of the guild, surrounded by the tools of his trade.

In the Netherlands

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , ; ; ) is the capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, largest city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It has a population of 933,680 in June 2024 within the city proper, 1,457,018 in the City Re ...

, every guildhall had its ''gildeknecht'' (guild servant), often the guild's youngest member, and was guarded by a ''gildehond'' (guild dog). Every evening, the guild brothers gathered in the tavern room of the guildhall to discuss the events of the day while the ''gildeknecht'' served beer. Once a year, the guildmen would gather in the guildhall for a communal meal.

In Belgium

* The Round Table (or ''Tafelrond'', in Dutch) in

Leuven Leuven (, , ), also called Louvain (, , ), is the capital and largest City status in Belgium, city of the Provinces of Belgium, province of Flemish Brabant in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located about east of Brussels. The municipalit ...

. Designed 1479 by Matheus de Layens, guildhall built 1480–1487 internally comprising three houses, demolished 1817, reconstructed following original plans 1921. The old building's meeting rooms had been let to the guilds; the new had been in use by a bank and became a personal private property. * The Salmon (or ''De Zalm'', in Dutch) in

Mechelen Mechelen (; ; historically known as ''Mechlin'' in EnglishMechelen has been known in English as ''Mechlin'', from where the adjective ''Mechlinian'' is derived. This name may still be used, especially in a traditional or historical context. T ...

. Built c. 1530 in early

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) is a Periodization, period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries. It marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and sur ...

style by architect Willem van Wechtere for the prosperous fishermen's guild, it is one of the city's finest historical houses. The artist (1839–1919) used to live there. In the mid-20th century it became city property and held a museum, then the Tourist Information Office, and later again a museum. * In

Brussels Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a Communities, regions and language areas of Belgium#Regions, region of Belgium comprising #Municipalit ...

, the Grand-Place/Grote Markt is famous for its many

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

guildhalls, each one belonging to one of the former Guilds of Brussels. File:Makelaers Comptoir 1.jpg, The Makelaers Comptoir (brokers' guildhall) in

File:Edificios en la Grand-Place, Bruselas, Bélgica, 2021-12-15, DD 07.jpg, Grand-Place/Grote Markt of Brussels. From right to left: Le Roy d'Espagne, La Brouette, Le Sac, La Louve, Le Cornet and Le Renard. File:Antwerp GroteMarkt3-13 017 7938.jpg, Guildhalls at the Grote Markt in

Antwerp Antwerp (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and a Municipalities of Belgium, municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of Antwerp Province, and the third-largest city in Belgium by area at , after ...

File:Tafelrond Leuven - 385958 - onroerenderfgoed.jpg, The Round Table (''Tafelrond'') at the Grote Markt in

References

External links

* * * {{Wiktionary inline Seats of local government