The Great Gorilla Run isn’t just any old running event - it’s a historical sight-seeing tour of The City of London and Southwark, the oldest parts of great ol’ London town.

There’s the obvious attractions - Tower Bridge, Shakespeare’s Globe, Tate Modern, Millenium Bridge.

And then there’s the less obvious, little nuggets of history, hidden away in The City and on Bankside,  revealing themselves only to the more inquisitive Great Gorilla.

And one of them is right on the Great Gorilla Run start / finish line - the Clothworkers Hall, home to the historic Clothworkers Company - in who’s courtyard, the run begins and ends.

The Clothworkers’ roots stretch back to the medieval Trade Guilds - the woolmen, weavers, fullers, shearmen, dyers, haberdashers, drapers, and merchant Taylors. The Guilds provided quality assurances for consumers and acted as the trade unions of the times.

All these different interests were brought together under a Royal Charter issued to the Clothworkers Company on 18th January 1528 and signed by Sir Thomas More, amongst other 16th century dignitaries.

Clothworkers pops up at key moments throughout London’s history. In his famous diary, Samuel Pepys noted that the plague was particularly virulent around the Hall and, commenting on the Great Fire of London, he wrote: ‘But strange it was to see Cloathworkers-hall on fire these three days and nights in one body of Flame’.

Later the company became involved with charity work, particularly with education and disadvantaged people, work that continues to the present day, via the Clothworkers Foundation.

So when you’re standing on the Great Gorilla Run start line, muscles primed for the 7km urban adventure that lies ahead, take a quick glance around and consider the great piece of British history that’s formed the backdrop to each and every Great Gorilla Run.

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