The Worshipful Company of Grocers, which ranks second of the City Livery Companies was originally known as The Guild of Pepperers, whose earliest records date from 1180. The Company was formed as a religious and social fraternity of merchants and moneyers trading in spices, gold and other luxury goods from Byzantium and the Mediterranean.

Livery Companies, or Guilds as they were also known, began in medieval times as ‘fraternities’or ‘misteries’ (from the Latin for occupation) to protect the interests of particular trades and the practitioners of those trades.

Today there are 108 City Livery Companies, some of very modern origin (Management Consultants, International Bankers, Tax Advisers) and some of very ancient origin (Goldsmiths, Weavers, Fishmongers), but the oldest Companies began as described, protecting the quality and reputation of the trade and the members of the Company.

Charitable fundraising for the benefit of education, Housing and Church bodies among other things, have today, largely superseded many of the original trade functions of the livery companies, and combined they dispensed £41m in 2006.