This year’s Carol Service will be held in the beautiful chapel within Mercers’ Hall on Monday 11 December.
With music from the Bread Street Chamber Choir of St Paul’s Cathedral School, this will be a lovely event for the festive season.
Drinks and Canapes will be available following the service in the Ambulatory where there is currently an exhibition entitled Whittington’s Legacy on display.
If you wish to have a little more time in the exhibition, the Mercers’ have kindly agreed to open the Hall from 5pm to allow attendees to view the exhibition before the service begins at 6pm
Please see below more information about the exhibition:
2023 marks 600 years since the death of Mercer Richard Whittington, and the start of his remarkable philanthropic legacy. Whittington’s Legacy, an exhibition celebrating Whittington as merchant, Mercer and philanthropist ,will be on display until 15 December 2023. The exhibition commemorates both the anniversary of his death and the establishment of his charity.
Richard Whittington (c 1350-1423) was the youngest son of a minor landowner in Gloucestershire and came to London as an apprentice. He made his fortune in the Mercers’ trade and through financing the Crown. Whittington was active in civic life, serving as Lord Mayor four times, and Master of the Mercers’ Company three times. He was known for being charitable in his lifetime, as well as leaving his entire estate to charity. Whittington directed his trustees to entrust his legacy to the care of the Mercers’ Company and his substantial bequest established the Company as a manager of charities.
Works from the Company’s own archive and collection will be displayed alongside loans from private collections and institutions including the Victoria and Albert Museum, the London Metropolitan Archives and the Leathersellers’ Company. A key object on display will be the surviving wardrobe accounts from the reign of Richard II, on loan from the National Archives, in which Whittington’s name appears on multiple occasions, selling fine fabrics to the king.
The exhibition also explores Whittington’s influence on the philanthropy of subsequent Mercer benefactors, concentrating on the three centuries following Whittington’s death, up to 1750. During this period the Company was entrusted with many of the benefactions that form the core of its charitable work today. The displays will consider philanthropy in areas such as the church, education, almshouses, and helping the poor and prisoners, all of which have their roots in Whittington’s charitable activities and legacy. The exhibition will feature the Company’s recent acquisition of Corona Charitatis, a sermon preached on the death of Mercer Richard Fishborne and important loans include a magnificent portrait of John Bancks, on loan from Chequers Trust, and a full length portrait of Sir Baptist Hicks from the collection of the Middlesex Guildhall Art Trust, usually on display at the Supreme Court.
Whittington’s Legacy will highlight information about the Charity of Sir Richard Whittington today, which since 2018 has awarded 303 grants to 245 organisations totalling £20.7 million. This is a truly remarkable legacy for a man best known today as a pantomime character.
Whittington’s Legacy will be on display in the Ambulatory from 30 January 2023 to 15 December 2023.
Tickets:
Carol Service only: £20
Carol Service including Drinks and Canapes: £59
The exhibition has no charge
Please book below where possible
If you are unable to book below, then please contact Clare Ferrar on clareferrar@nullaccountantslivery.org or 07828 554967