Forget stocks and shares, the Square Mile has an illustrious history full of shoes that deserves celebrating, writes Anna Moloney

Patrick Cox was the it shoe designer for 1990s fashionistas. When Victoria Beckham got her first paycheck from the Spice Girls, it was to his London shop she ran, queueing up outside on a Saturday afternoon with her sister to nab a pair of his iconic white slingbacks – aptly called the Wannabes. But as his star rose, so did it fall, with his eponymous brand – and his mental health – collapsing in the mid-noughties. Since then, with the help of psychedelic therapy, he’s relocated to Ibiza, where he now runs his new shoe brand Doors of Perception, a “consciousness-raising” clothing line, “ethically sourced, sustainably produced, and embroidered with love right here on Ibiza”.

So to find him among the lah di da corridors of Saddlers’ Hall, a stately building stood in the heart of London’s financial district, earlier this month was, it’s fair to say, a little off-brand.

But Cox, like many London shoemakers, owes much of his legacy to the Square Mile, or, more specifically, the Cordwainers, one of the oldest livery companies in the City whose legacy lives on with surprising vitality and glamour today – counting the likes not only of Cox, but of

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