125. Lunch with the Lady Mayoress, Mansion House, 28 February 2024

Invited to a private lunch with the Lady Mayoress – how lovely!  Not knowing what to expect, I arrived at the Mansion House to find some familiar Consorts, some new Consorts and other guests, 20 of us in all, who included a badminton partner of Elisabeth Mainelli and former Lady Mayoress Lady Russell. 

The silverware from our table at lunch, ready to be returned to the vault

We were escorted in the lift to the Lord Mayor’s private apartments and greeted with champagne and delicious canapes.  Ushered into the dining room with its beautiful oval table and stunning chandelier, we had a delightful simple vegan lunch, and chatted comfortably with our neighbours. 

A pearl sword of Queen Elizabeth I, with 2635 pearls

Elisabeth was charmingly informal and showed us round the vault after lunch, with imposing creations in gold and silver which had been presented to various Lord Mayors down the ages from other international dignitaries.

All too soon it was time to return to the real world of damp and dusty bustling City streets, a far cry from the understated elegance of the Georgian mayoral residence.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

230. Installation Court, Apothecaries’ Hall, 3 July 2024

Image
The Installation Court was held in the magnificent setting of the Apothecaries’ Hall. The focus of the Court meeting was on the growth of the Company and increased activity and income. The Company was very pleased to welcome Liam Hogg, Lee Morton and Gerald O’Shaughnessy as new Liverymen, and Martin Ballard, Avtar Jirh, Tom Morton, Michael Nates, Lina Nieto, Elizabeth Price, Mark Smith, John Ward, Judy West and John Wylie as new Freemen of the Company.
Read more

229. Sunset Cruise and Dinner, River Thames, 2 July 2024

Image
My thank you event for the Court and Company had to involve water, so what better way than a sunset cruise on the Thames!   I wanted a memorable expression of thanks to members of the Court, Past Masters, Fellow Masters, Consorts and friends. I took the advice of the Master Waterman and approached several companies to hire a boat for the evening. The first we declined when we found that the catering was not of the required standard. Everything was going well for the second boat until I advertised it to the Court and had more responses than could fit on the boat. So we got a bigger boat and filled it. The caterer was concerned how they could feed us all but I was confident it would work. On Monday morning I took a call from the boat company to say that the refuelling on Saturday night had resulted in contaminated oil getting to the engine and they offered a fourth boat …. the Wellington ! I politely declined, as I knew the Wellington would not be cruising anywhere. Eventually the...
Read more

79.Lord Mayor's Address to the Livery, Mansion House, 22 November 2023

Image
I have taken so many pictures of the current Lord Mayor standing at a lectern I thought that it was about time for a change so a previous Lord Mayor instead.   One of 625! This was one of the occasions when Masters had to be at the Mansion House to hear the Lord Mayor.   It was an impressive but informal occasion. The Lord Mayor started with thanks to the cadet forces from the Army, Navy and Air Force for their help at the Lord Mayor’s show.   He then outlined his vision and plans for the year ahead.   In particular he emphasised the importance of the Livery and cross-Livery working.   We were given a handout on 12 of the different pan-Livery activities.   Although we have engaged with many of them, I felt that we were active members of relatively few and we needed to revisit our pan-Livery activities. The Lord Mayor then focused on his theme of Connect to Prosper and the various initiatives that were helping to deliver it.   He described the seri...
Read more