Worshipful Company of Vintners

The vintners of London formed a guild as early as the twelfth century and received their first royal charter in 1363, which granted far-reaching powers including duties of search throughout England and the right to buy herrings and cloth to sell to the Gascons.

This royal charter effectively granted a monopoly over wine imports from Gascony, securing the Company pre-eminence in the wine trade. Ranked eleventh in 1515 when the order of precedence of City Livery Companies was established, Queen Mary revoked the Company's rights in 1553. Its privileges removed under the Stuarts were restored by William & Mary but the Company could not recover its former dominance. By 1725 few wine merchants were joining the livery and the Company finally abandoned claim to duty of search.

Until 2006, the Vintners' Company retained autonomous alcohol sale licensing rights in certain areas, such as the City of London or along the route of the old Great North Road. Its ancient rights being abolished, limited privileges remain to the livery.[2]

The Company is actively engaged in wine trade education, including the prestigious Master of Wine qualification. It also supports many charities, including ones concerned with treating the effects of alcohol and drug abuse.

Vintners' Hall is situated on Lower Thames Street by Southwark Bridge, in Vintry Ward. In medieval times, nearby Garlickhythe was where garlic and wine from France were docked in the City.

Since the reign of King Edward IV, the Company enjoys a peculiar right of swan upping,[3] whereby swans on the Thames are apportioned among the Crown, the Vintners' and Dyers' Companies.

The Vintners elect a new Master annually in July, celebrated by a special service at the Guild Church of St James Garlickhythe, opposite Vintners' Hall. The procession starts at the livery hall with the Master and Wardens in Tudor dress carrying nosegays, their path being swept by a Wine Porter using a birch broom.

Sir Lionel Denny,[4] is the Vintner most recently to serve as Lord Mayor of London, and the Master Vintner for 2023/24 is Ant Fairbank.[5]

• The music video of Liberty X's 2002 smash hit "Just a Little" was filmed at Vintners' Hall. It features the group as a gang of professional burglars (with two of its members, Jessica Taylor and Kelli Young, wearing tight black latex catsuits) who steal a diamond from the building's atrium.[6]
• Vintners' Hall can also be seen in the music video of Mimi Webb's 2022 hit "Ghost of You".[7]

• 
  Vintners' Swan Marker, in blue uniform, during annual Swan Upping at Abingdon, summer 2011
• 
  The Vintners at the start of Swan Upping, Sunbury 2004
• 
  The Queen's Swan Uppers (white flag, far right) and the Vintners' (red flag) and Dyers' (blue flag) Swan Uppers at Abingdon in 2006
• 
  Publication procession of the Worshipful Company of Vintners in 2019

• Alderman William Abell
• Confrérie des Chevaliers du Tastevin
• Distillers' Company
• Master of Wine

• www.vintnershall.co.uk

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