“Last Thursday, Deputy Master, Bob Harland, and 20 other Company members attending the CIoT/ATT Joint Presidents’ reception at the Guildhall. The fact that almost 10% of our membership attended shows the very close relationship that we have with both bodies.

During the evening, we had the opportunity to view the Museum’s latest exhibition entitled REBEL: 30 Years of London Fashion. This provided a fascinating insight into modern fashion. Further details are in the following link REBEL: 30 Years of London Fashion – Design Museum“

The Worshipful Company arranged for six members to obtain their Freedom of the City of London at a Group Admission Ceremony at Guildhall on Thursday 21 September.

Tiphaine Le Bian conducted the Ceremony, explaining the history of the Freedom.  After the Ceremony, members were able to see some of interesting items, photographs and artefacts in the Court Room.

The members and their guests thoroughly enjoyed the occasion.  Later in the day, five of the new Freemen were advanced to Liverymen at the Installation Court meeting.

Thanks to Richard Geldard and Carolyn Finch for organising our participation and to Sue Christensen in her final act as Deputy Master.

If you are interested in obtaining your Freedom of the City of London, please contact Carolyn Finch, our Administration and Events Officer ([email protected]).

In January 2021, Past Master Erica Stary published her paper – Women in the Livery and High Civic Office in the City.

Women in the Livery and High Civic Office in the City

The paper is essentially an overview: it looks first at the momentous year for women in the City – 1983 and the background to that year, then at the contributions women have made from the early middle ages to the City’s prosperity and the background law which prevented them from doing more. It then explains the rationale behind the Lady Masters Association, and the relatively newly created City Consorts group (the members of which are mainly but not entirely women). There is also a short comment about women clerks and the emerging pre-year masters groups. Since a woman attaining high civic office often needs (or at least would think about obtaining, a coat of arms as it is traditional, though not compulsory) it looks at women’s lack of rights there. It does not look at the considerable amount of voluntary time and work put in by women (and men) who have been prepared to be and have been elected to serve as common councilmen and aldermen and in due course, if appropriate, as sheriff and/or Lord Mayor.

Once more, fine weather greeted us for another weekend walk. This time the route was along the Regent’s Canal, taking in both familiar landmarks, and not-so-familiar locations along the way.

The initial meeting point was the concourse of Paddington Station, busy even in the middle of a Sunday morning. Then UP the stairs to Paddington Basin, a canal humming with activity and boats whose owners were offering a diversity of refreshments, glinting in the sunlight.

Little Venice, with its range of very expensive houses was soon reached, and then the rest of the walk was in an easterly direction. Past a variety of animals on display at London Zoo, and the aviary designed by Lord Snowdon – although this was under repair, and there were no birds visible at the time – as far as Camden Market. Being a weekend, this was teeming with visitors, so a short diversion was taken to avoid the worst of the crowds.

There then followed a series of locks, taking us down to a slightly lower level, until the huge redevelopment of the St Pancras and King’s Cross area came into sight. This vicinity has changed beyond belief in recent years, and on display are many examples of the best of modern architecture. Who can believe what has happened to what once were enormous and rusting gas-holders? Or the area which was once full of coal, waiting to be loaded on to large steam locomotives, ready to head express passenger trains to Scotland?

It was an afternoon when important Premier League football matches on the last day of the season would prove to be an even greater attraction for some, but after a leisurely lunch in the shade from the sun, the rest of us progressed to the Angel, reached up a slight gradient to avoid a long canal tunnel where no tow-path ventures.

That may well prove to be the starting-point for our next weekend walk.

A very fun day was had by Company spectators and runners alike who attended and competed at Guildhall on Shrove Tuesday for the 16^th Inter-Livery Pancake Races.

21 livery company teams entered runners who competed in this very colourful event with frying pan trophies awarded to the winner of each class.  We entered each of the four categories of races – Masters, Liverymen, Ladies and Novelty and each of our runners performed admirably. We came second in the final of the Novelty Race, being within a whisker of winning our first trophy ever in the Races after 11 years of competing, and our Master just failed to make the final of his race by another whisker! Our Novelty race runner ran in a light weight (for speed!) cape covered with the emblems of the Lord Mayor’s charities and underneath it wore a T-shirt with our very own Owl motif from our Company’s coat of arms.

The weather stayed clear for the races themselves and afterwards our runners and spectators retired for a fine buffet lunch and wine in the ancient Guildhall vaults along with fellow liverymen of all the other teams. To warm us up we started with soup in a commemorative 16^th Inter-Livery Pancake Race mug which we could take home as a souvenir and we finished the lunch with a very tasty pancake. We hope next year will bring that elusive trophy win!

Our walk along the Regent’s Canal continued in late July, starting off from where we had left off in May – Angel station on the Northern Line, with its remarkably long escalator to the surface. At this point, the Canal itself is also buried in a tunnel, and where it emerges once more into the open air, its character changes considerably: many more canal-boats, in a wide variety of colours. Gardens extending from the back of terraced houses displayed a profusion of flowers, and the small walking group took good advantage of a pop-up café and then a larger establishment in Victoria Park. Here there was a choice of destinations: to the right, Limehouse Basin beckoned, whilst to the left lay the Olympic Park, in part re-tracing the steps we had taken back in 2011, when the Games themselves were still in the future. A hearty light lunch was consumed beside the water-side, before finally boarding the Docklands Light Railway at the charmingly-named Pudding Mill Station.

These weekend walks are always a good opportunity to meet fellow members, without the complication of weekday work commitments.