Circle of Life

Circle of Life – The Upholders’ Celebratory Project and Luncheon to commemorate the 400th Anniversary of our Company receiving its Royal Charter in 1626

The Worshipful Company of Upholders recorded its origin as 1360 and 266 years later we obtained our Royal Charter from King Charles I in 1626.  This was an important milestone as we were then commanded to ensure the quality of upholstery materials sold in the City of London and foster the education of our trades.

We celebrated our impressive heritage by making something that is truly spectacular and embracing our Upholstery, Funeral Directing and Soft Furnishing skills.  Some Livery Companies have funeral palls sometimes known as coffin covers.  Many are works of art in their own right, some are 500 years old.

Our 400th Charter Anniversary project was to create our own beautiful pall, engaging the expertise of the Royal School of Needlework, international iconographer Aidan Hart (who designed the Royal Anointing Screen used by Charles III at his coronation), twelve English Cathedrals and the skills of prisoners working with the charity Fine Cell Work.  It involved using a rare and exquisite embroidery stitch called Opus Anglicanum which originated from the medieval period when England was at the height of its embroidery skills and embraces the use of gold and silver wirework.  This project reintroduced this all but lost stitch.

The Circle of Life project had two components: Firstly, to create a Circle of Life, literally a circular piece of luxury wool cloth over 2.3m in diameter with an outer circle of twelve detachable panels each depicting scenes from the Upholders’ history including the making of mattresses, the Great Fire of London and a funeral cortege.  Each panel was made by a different Cathedral team who also created a silhouette of their own Cathedral as part of an inner circle within the design.  The design also included the Upholders’ crest, two sparvers (the tent-like symbols on our crest) and two crosses to be undertaken by Fine Cell Work. Fine Cell Work

Secondly, a Funeral Pall was created. An additional luxury wool cloth was created to cover a coffin at a funeral, to which some of the twelve panels, the crosses, crest and sparvers can be attached.  

The Circle of Life, which is housed in a beautiful circular timber frame complete with museum quality glass, is now on tour for three years to each participating Cathedral.  This will give the wider public a chance to see the amazing work of each Cathedral embroidery team. 

The Company has recorded this historical achievement by producing a commemorative book featuring all the design work of the pall with associated photographs alongside the history of the Upholders and individual names of contributors to the project.  

The Royal School of Needlework managed the project, and each Cathedral had a team leader skilled in the Opus Anglicanum stitch.  A whole team was assembled involving over eighty stitchers nationwide who learnt the complicated and nearly lost skill of creating this stitch.

THE GREAT UNVEILING AND CELEBRATION – To mark the 400th anniversary of our Charter a substantial celebration took place at the magnificent Guildhall within the City of London on 9th July 2026, with all the Cathedrals and Fine Cell Work represented, together with a full exhibition of this project and the history of the Upholders.  At the heart of the celebration was the unveiling of the work.

This is a project of national importance. The costs of managing this complex and prestigious project, designing the Circle of Life by Aidan Hart, creating the ambitious display case, the wonderful materials involved, the production of a celebratory book written by our Archivist, and mounting the unveiling ceremony was in the region of £100,000.  With the valuable help of two generous donations from the Worshipful Company of Drapers and the Worshipful Company of Broderers and some underwriting from our Company and our Charity the project has been completed.

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