All fine leather makers, including Girdlers and Glovers, were originally classified as cordwainers; however, the term eventually came to refer only to fine leather footwear, including boots.

The Cordwainers' Company, which received the right to regulate City trade in 1272, obtained a Royal Charter of incorporation in 1439.

Other leather-linked Livery Companies, which enjoy close relations with the Cordwainers include the Curriers, Leathersellers, Saddlers, Girdlers and Glovers.

The livery hall of the Cordwainers, Cordwainers' Hall, though rebuilt several times, stood at the same site near St. Paul's Churchyard from 1316 until its final destruction in the London blitz in 1941.

Thus surviving the destruction of the hall in 1941, it was re-installed in the Holy Sepulchre church in London in 1973.