“Being an American company, one fabrication challenge we faced with Vintners Place was in following the traditional European standard of exposing grain direction—the theory being that the exposed grain was more resistant to weathering. With certain English stones this procedure is a good practice, but with Indiana limestone, it’s unnecessary.”

—Jeff Leisz
Bybee Stone Mill Superintendent

Location: London, England

Architect: Winney MacKey & Lewis

Contractor/Mason: W.E. Grant & Company

Cubic Feet: 18,000

Vintners Place

Photo ©Roy King. Used with permission.

The Vintners Guild Hall project involved an addition to an historically significant building on the River Thames in London, England. Situated within the “City Proper,” the square mile which includes the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, and the Old Bailey, the London Planning Commission instituted a search for stone comparable in quality to their own high-demand Portland limestone, an Oolitic deposit similar in its buff color to Indiana limestone. They found it in Indiana limestone, which has a bedding pattern—unlike the English stones Leisz mentioned—unaffected by erosion factors.

“Fortunately,” Steve Hollick, of W.E. Grant & Co., said, “Indiana has both the stone and the craftsmen, the combination required to do the project.” Britain's Prince Charles had urged a revival of classical architecture within City Proper, and Hollick commented that the magnitude and prestige of the project was of indescribable significance.

The Vintners’ Company originated as one of the London guilds of the medieval ages, meeting at their local church, St. Martin in the Vintry. Their first Charter was issued July 15th, 1363, and allowed the Vintners to preside over the wine trade—which, between the years 1446 and 1448, for instance, made up almost a third of England’s entire import trade. Through the centuries, the Vintners maintained estates and charities and have endured political changes, and today the Vintners enjoy a renewed interest and support for the trade; a new Charter was granted August 20, 1973.

The Vintners have an interesting historical connection to swans, dating at least from the mid-1400s. Swans were prized—both for meat and for their quills, used for writing—and could only be owned by freeholders of land or by “prescription,” a term similar to “grandfathered” in United States’ terminology. Therefore, the Vintners Place addition included two large swans carved in relief by Bybee Stone Company, for its River Thames dock—the entrance where, historically, royalty have disembarked to enter Vintners Place.