The City of London Livery Companies
have their foundation in the ancient guilds, which regulated the standard of
work and conditions of employment for craftsmen and apprentices working
within the City.
Records of the paviors date back to 1280, when Paviors were first made
responsible for the repair and cleaning of London’s
streets and pavements. The trade included ‘gong ferming’, the emptying and
cleansing of privies, a profitable business carried out in appalling
conditions. In 1302 four Paviors were appointed as Surveyors of Pavements to
regulate the making of pavements; further surveyors were appointed in 1311
not all of whom were Paviors which lead to conflicts of interest between
guilds.
In 1479 the Company’s Ordinances were approved by the City Corporation
giving it formal authority over the ‘craft or mystery of paving’. Its
activities included not only the regulation of the skill but also charitable
support of poorer brethren. In 1515 the Lord Mayor placed the Company number
56 in the Order of Precedence of Livery Companies. The Company flourished
until the 1 9 century when its control of street works and industry
practices diminished.
In 1889 the Company revived and received a modern Grant of Livery in 1900.
In the last 100 years the Company has prospered supporting the paving
industry and playing an active part in the civic life of the City. The
Company provided six Lord Mayors and twelve Sheriffs throughout the 20
century.
During 1999 and 2000 the Company undertook a comprehensive review of its
Ordinances, Rules and Standing Orders and modernised many of its practices.
Today the principal object of the Company is to further the ‘craft of
paving’ in its modern context that is the planning, research, design,
construction, maintenance and management of all paved surfaces as used in
floors, pedestrian areas, playing surfaces, hard standings, landscaping,
pavements, streets, roads, motorways and runways.
In 2003 the Court of Aldermen approved the restated and updated Ordinances.
Later the same year the Company petitioned Her Majesty the Queen for a Royal
Charter of incorporation, some 330 years after an unsuccessful petition to
Charles II in 1673 which, for reasons not now recorded, had been vetoed by
the Court of Aldermen.
A Royal Charter was granted on 11 February 2004.