The trade of knife-making and repairing was formed in the thirteenth century as a guild; the Cutlers' Company received a Royal Charter in 1416.

John Stowe stated that the arms of the Cutlers of London ("Gules, three pairs of swords in saltire argent hilts and pommels or) were granted in 1476 by Thomas Holme, Clarenceux King of Arms, and the crest "an elephant bearing a castle" by Robert Cooke (c.1535-1592/3), Clarenceux.

[citation needed] In correspondence with a contributor, the Cutlers Company has stated it has no connection whatsoever with the location.

The Company's livery hall is located on a site in Warwick Lane once occupied by the Royal College of Physicians, near Newgate Street.

It is a brick building, the façade decorated with a terracotta frieze depicting the processes of knife-making by the sculptor Benjamin Creswick, who had worked as a knife-grinder in Sheffield.