The Cooks Company has doubled areas of charitable giving by matching donations with cash from a City & Guilds fund that reflects a low point in the Livery’s history. The City and Guilds of London Institute was founded in 1878 by the Corporation of the City of London and 16 livery companies to protect and promote the standard of technical education. It reflected an appreciation that the Guilds were no longer fulfilling their traditional roles as training and standard setting bodies.
As Matthew Engel wrote in a Financial Times article in 2012. “Many of the companies that did survive had lost their original purpose even by Tudor times. One history says that Elizabeth I asked the Worshipful Company of Mercers why silk was so expensive, and they hadn’t the faintest idea. Between the acceptance of the Worshipful Company of Carmen (No. 77) in 1746 and the master mariners (78) in 1932, there was not a single newcomer to the ranks. By Victorian times it was certainly just about the dinners: sumptuous and sometimes rowdy.
Reputation
“By then the companies’ reputation was a bit dubious, and some politicians began to see them as a reactionary bastion. Since they still had a role in the City of London’s governance, this was an issue. In the late 19th century, they felt compelled to get their act together: in 1878 they founded the City & Guilds Institute to develop vocational education, a role it still fulfils.”
The slump prompted a government commission to look at every aspect of the Livery around this time. It found that “The commencement of the present [19th] century is the approximate date of the connection of the Companies … with the City.”
After that things began to pick up and the social responsibility and desire to get back to roots developed. The Cooks were probably no better or worse than any of the other 100-plus companies but have arguably pushed the professional links further than most. Three years ago, City & Guilds advised the Charity Committee that they were establishing a matched funding programme available to Livery Companies.
Upon further investigation by Freeman Wally Torrington, it became apparent that City & Guilds would match any funding we provided to a charity, (providing it met certain criteria) up to a total of £20,000 Therefore, if the Cooks Charity was going to support a project for £18,000 by applying for City & Guilds Matched Funding it would only cost the charity £9,000. Hence the support for House of St Barnabas, Lakefield and, as a one-off, New City College in Hackney,
east London.
