_St. Stephen's Church, Walbrook._--Sir Robert Chicheley, alderman and
twice Lord Mayor of London, is said, in Wm. Ravenhill's _Short Account
of the Company of Grocers from their Original_ (4to. Lond. 1689), to
have purchased the ground whereon St. Stephen's church stands, and to
have built, at his own charge, the church which was afterwards replaced
by the edifice of Sir Christopher Wren. The founder was a member of that
company, and to them he gave the advowson. He was the youngest of three
brothers, of whom the eldest was Henry Chicheley, Archbishop of
Canterbury _temp._ Henry VI. The second brother was Sir William, who,
like Robert, was an alderman, and a member of the Grocers' Company. From
the younger brother, Robert, descended Sir Thomas Chicheley, who was
Master of the Ordnance and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the
reign of Charles II.
_Grocers' Hall._--In 1411 the custos or warden and brethren of the
Grocers' Company purchased of Robert Lord Fitzwalter his mansion-house
and lands, extending from near the Old Jewry to Walbrook in the centre
of the city of London, for 320 marks, and soon afterwards laid the
foundation of their new Common-hall. In 1429 they had license to acquire
lands of the value of 500 marks. There was "a fair open garden behind,
for air and diversion, and before the house, within the gate, a large
court-yard." The company, after the fire of London, rebuilt and enlarged
the old Hall, says Ravenhill in his _Account of the Grocers' Company_
(Lond. 1689), "with offices and accommodations far beyond any other
place, for the most commodious seat of the chief magistrate." (See Mr.
Cunningham's quotation from Strype, as to its civic uses.) King Charles
II. accepted the office of Master of the Company, and they set up his
statue in the Royal Exchange. See Ravenhill's _Short Account of
the Company of Grocers_, and Howel's _Londinopolis_, fol. Lond. 1657.