142. Dinner to meet the Masters, Prime Wardens and Upper Bailiffs of the Livery Companies of the City of London, Mansion House, 14 March 2024


Until the last quarter of the 19th century the Lord Mayor hosted an annual banquet for the heads of the Great Twelve Livery Companies.  Today the dinner is for all Livery Companies. It is held to celebrate the partnership with the Livery Companies of the City of London and to return some of the hospitality received during the Mayoral year.  It was a great opportunity to meet with other Masters and Consorts of the Livery and Guild community.


After passing the guard of Pikeman on the stairs, and being formally welcomed by the Mayor and Mayoress in the reception line, we caught up with other Masters to a backdrop of music by the Salon Orchestra of the Honourable Artillery Company. We then moved into the Egyptian Hall for a fanfare by the State Trumpeters of the Household Cavalry to welcome the Lord Mayor.

Based on the epitaph of Sir Christopher Wren, the Lord Mayor spoke of the contribution of the Livery to the City of London: “If you seek a monument to the Livery, look around the City.”

The Master Mercer then spoke and was followed by the Master Grocer. There was plenty of praise for the work and achievements of the Livery Climate Action Group led by Alison Gowman.

After the dinner there were plenty of opportunities to catch up with other Livery Companies.  I am glad we decided to stay over in London as we did not get back to the hotel until 1.30!  It was a most enjoyable evening.


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

148. The City Water Debate, Go with the flow: working with nature and managing catchments, Bakers’ Hall, Thursday 21 March 2024

Image
There was a great turnout from the Company and sector for the third in our prestigious series of City Water Debates.   Organised around World Water Day it was close to 1st April, the 50 year anniversary of the formation of the regional water authorities, based on river basins and catchments.   They are still the fundamental building blocks of the organisation of the water companies and the Environment Agency. We had a high profile panel of speakers: Bart Schoonbaert (Associate Director, Arup) Rt Hon Ruth Kelly PC (Chair, Water UK) Mark Lloyd (Chief Executive, The Rivers Trust) Richard Bramley (Chair, Environment Forum, National Farmers’ Union) Peter Simpson (Chief Executive, Anglian Water) They tackled a wide range of issues including; the scope for a different, less carbon-intensive and more environmentally sustainable nature-based approach for managing future water sector needs, with joint working by many partners, what are the best models for financing and delivering such...
Read more