Last weekend was open house. An event where 700 buildings open their doors to the public for free. Some only accessible during this weekend.Among those I chose to visit was the apothecaries livery hall. A chance to see a wonderful example of 17th century architecture and style.
The society began life with the guild of pepperers in 1180 as spice traders. This became grocers around 1428 trading in everything from spice to perfume, wines herbs and drugs.
A rivalry existed for many years between the apothecaries and physicians over the entitlement to prepare and sell anything intended for medicinal purposes.
Eventually James VI gave the apothecaries their own charter in 1617. They split from the grocers and became what is known these days as pharmacists.
16 comments:
What an interesting evolution. Thanks for the lesson.
What a great building! As usual, something new and unusual from London. Thanks, Mo. Ciao. A.
PS BT Broadband is up and running at the moment. Fingers crossed!
Brilliant - I love old buildings and I picked up some new knowledge too!
It's fun to go to open houses of places which normally are closed to the public. Thanks for taking us along on the "free tour!"
Wonderful entrance and interesting piece of history. Thank you.
Very interesting post !
Oh, I rather like this picture. Looks... touristy!
Love the unicorns and arches. As always, thanks for the bit of history!
Cool event! I hadn't known about that!
I'm so jealous, Mo. There's so much history in London and you're right there amongst it all. TFS
Great picture.
Thanks for the info...this is very interesting.
I just wanted to say I love your London blog, and the links you've provided. I plan on traveling to London (from the USA) in about a year, then taking the train to Norwich to do further research on my family ancestry. And plan to have a ton of fun along the way. I'm excited!
I love that they call them "chemists" though.
How did I miss this?!? Everybody seems to have gone and everybody seems to be talking about this! : ( I hope I remember next year - wouldnt bet on it though!
x
Thanks for sharing!
Interesting,- and a nice unique photo.
Love the architecture and thanks for the petit lesson.
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