CANNON STREET, forming the shortest route from St. Paul's Cathedral to London Bridge or the Tower, is a wide thoroughfare, fully + mile long, completed in 1854. The name is a corruption of Candlewick Street, this having once been the chief seat of the wax-chandlers. To the left (north) stands the Hall of the Cordwainers (i.e. shoemakers, from 'Cordovan' leather), dating from 1788. About 200 yards farther on Cannon Street crosses Queen Victoria St. and Queen St.. College Hill, the next side-street to the right, contained the house of Richard Whittington (died 1423), four times Mayor of London and eminent for his munificent charities (site now occupied by Nos. 21 and 22).
Whittington was buried in the church of St. Michael Paternoster Royal (open 12-2), in College Hill, rebuilt by Edward Strong, Wren's master-mason, in 1694 (steeple added in 1713). The church contains an oaken altarpiece by Grinling Gibbons and a painting of Mary Magdalen by W. Hilton. The old church was built at the expense of Whittington, who established also a college (of St. Spirit and St. Mary) and some almshouses close by. The college was dissolved by Henry VIII. (circa 1550), but the Whittington Almshouses, removed to Highgate in 1808, are still administered by his livery company, the Mercers (whose schools stood in College Hill till 1794).
In Dowgate Hill, the next cross-street on the same side, are the halls of the Tallow Chandlers (No. 4), the Skinners (No. 8), and the Dyers (No. 10).
The hall of the rich Guild of Skinners (incorporated in 1327), rebuilt after the Great Fire, contains some valuable plate (incl. the 'Cockayne Cups' of 1565) and a series of historical paintings by Frank Brangwyn. The wooden porch in the court and the wainscoting in the 'Cedar Room' are interesting (introduction necessary). The Dyers' Company (chartered in 1471) claims to be the first of the minor guilds and shares with the King and the Vintners the ownership of the swans on the Thames. In College St., leading to College Hill, is the Innholders' Hall, with a facade of 1670 (towards Little College Street).
