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January 13, 2006
College of Arms, London, U.K.
In 1555 the heralds were presented with the site of the present College of Arms, on which then stood a mediaeval house called Derby Place. This was the Heralds' College until 1666.
There are records of the heralds carrying out certain alterations to Derby Place over the years, but little of its appearance is now known except that it formed three sides of a quadrangle and was entered by a gate with a portcullis on the west side of the site. On the south range, where Queen Victoria Street now is, stood a large hall at the western end.
In 1666 the old Heralds' College was swept away by the Great Fire. The College records were saved and taken to the Palace of Westminster where a temporary office was opened. It was probably a shortage of funds for rebuilding that delayed the planning of a new Heralds College until 1670. It was then that Francis Sandford, Rouge Dragon Pursuivant, and Morris Emmett, the King's bricklayer, seem to have proposed the new design which was then followed. The cost of rebuilding was met in stages and the new College was erected slowly and in parts. The heralds contributed considerably out of their own pockets but they also sought subscriptions among the nobility whose names and pedigrees were entered in a series of lavish volumes known as the Benefactors Books which still survive at the College.
Posted by thdyck on January 13, 2006
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