Recent History
When, in 1835, the Municipal Corporations Act formally removed all guild restrictions on industrial activity, the Company of the York Taylors – and their Hall – faced their greatest crisis by far. Indeed they were almost unknown to most residents as well as visitors to the City. Until within living memory, the Hall itself stood in seclusion behind a row of unprepossessing cottages on the north side of Aldwark. Throughout the Victorian period the Hall provided a suitable site for elementary schooling; and although the Company was continuously plagued by severe financial problems, the continuity of its membership was never allowed to lapse completely. Thanks to the labours of Mr H E Harrowell, a well-known York solicitor, and many others, from the late 1930s onwards, the Great and Little Halls have gradually been restored to their former splendour. Now maintained by the Members of the Company, it stands as a memorial to six centuries of continuous if ever-changing guild history and to the endeavours of the many generations of Merchant Taylors who have preserved it from oblivion.