A guildhall, also known as a "guild hall" or "guild house", is a historical building originally used for tax collecting by municipalities or merchants in Great Britain and the Low Countries. These buildings commonly become town halls and in some cases museums while retaining their original names. Guildhalls as town hall in the United Kingdom In the United Kingdom, a guildhall is usually a town hall: in the vast majority of cases, the guildhalls have never served as the meeting place of any specific guild. A suggested etymology is from the Anglo Saxon "gild, or "payment"; the guildhall being where citizens came to pay their rates. The London Guildhall was established around 1120. For the Scottish municipal equivalent see tolbooth. List of guildhalls in the United Kingdom Andover Guildhall Barnstaple Guildhall Bath Guildhall Beverley Guildhall Bewdley Guildhall Blakeney Guildhall Boston Guildhall Brecon Guildhall Bristol Guildhall Bury St Edmunds Guildhall Cambridge Guildhall Canterbury Guildhall Cardigan Guildhall Carmarthen Guildhall Chard Guildhall Chester Guildhall Chichester Guildhall Conwy Guildhall Derby Guildhall Devonport Guildhall Derry Guildhall Exeter Guildhall Faversham Guildhall Gloucester Guildhall Grantham Guildhall Guildford Guildhall Helston Guildhall High Wycombe Guildhall Hull Guildhall King's Lynn Guildhall Kingston upon Thames Guildhall Lavenham Guildhall Leicester Guildhall Lichfield Guildhall Lincoln Guildhall Liskeard Guildhall London Guildhall Middlesex Guildhall Much Wenlock Guildhall Newcastle-under-Lyme Guildhall Newcastle upon Tyne Guildhall Merchant Adventurers' Hall, York Newport Guildhall, Isle of Wight Newport Guildhall, Shropshire Northampton Guildhall Norwich Guildhall Oswestry Guildhall Peterborough Guildhall Plymouth Guildhall Poole Guildhall Portsmouth Guildhall Preston Guildhall Rochester Guildhall Salisbury Guildhall Saltash Guildhall Southampton Guildhall South Molton Guildhall St Ives Guildhall St Mary's Guildhall, Coventry Stratford-upon-Avon Guildhall Swansea Guildhall Thaxted Guildhall Thetford Guildhall Totnes Guildhall Weymouth Guildhall Winchester Guildhall Windsor Guildhall Worcester Guildhall York Guildhall Guild halls as meeting houses for guilds A type of guild was known in Roman times. Known as collegium, collegia or corpus, these were organised groups of merchants who specialised in a particular craft and whose membership of the group was voluntary. One such example is the corpus naviculariorum, the college of long-distance shippers based at Rome's port, Ostia Antica. The Roman guilds failed to survive the collapse of the Roman Empire. Merchant guilds were reinvented during Europe's Medieval period. In England, these guilds went by many different names including: fraternity, brotherhood, college, company, corporation, fellowship, livery, or society, amongst other terms. In Europe, merchant guilds were known as natie, consulado or hansa. A fraternity, formed