Place Name
Named after the nearby Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths whose Hall has been located at the junction of Foster Lane and Gresham Street since 1339. The current hall is the third on the site, the second one being erected between 1634 and 1636 and restored after the Great Fire of 1666. It lasted for almost two centuries, but was eventually demolished in the late 1820s. By the nature of their trade they were always a wealthy guild and were able to accumulate more land through purchases and gifts, so that by Elizabethan times they were the principle landowners of Gutter Lane and Wood Street, Goldsmith Street was later formed to join the two.
