UNITED GUILDS' SERVICE ST PAULS: 1 APRIL

The nave of St Pauls looking towards the altar.

Following on from the Mansion House Dinner of the previous night the livery companies came together for the 69th Service of the United Guilds of the City of London.

As always there was a great turnout and the cathedral was packed.  The Masters and Wardens in their multicoloured robes and regalia of office, the scarlet robes of the Lord Mayor and Aldermen, the ecclesiastical vestments of the clergy and a large number of other uniformed officials complemented the rich decoration of the nave.  The wives of masters sat in rows between the pews and the altar in a splendid variety of hats.

There was a good turn out of Drapers.  So many in fact that the pew allocated to the Company could not hold all those who wanted to come and some members of the Company ended up in seats at the back of the cathedral.

The Very Reverend John Hall, Dean of Westminster, gave the sermon.  Part of it included a consideration of John Donne.  This was the second time in as many weeks, see an earlier post on my visit to Hertford College, Oxford, where this most interesting man had been remembered.  The final stage of his extraordinary life was spent as Dean of St Pauls.  He died in post on 1 April 1631 so the service was on the anniversary of his death 280 years ago.

We then went back to the Hall for lunch where we entertained Gavin Ralston, one of the lay canons, and Andrew Carwood, the cathedral's director of music. 

It was also good to see Dr Bill Frankland present.  He is our oldest liveryman having passed his ninety-ninth birthday last month.  He is still working as a doctor and has led the most eventful life including being a Japanese prisoner of war and treating Saddam Hussein, but he is professionally reticent on the latter subject.  He is a role model for anyone a few decades younger who may be suffering from a temporary lack of vitality. 

MANSION HOUSE DINNER FOR THE MASTERS, PRIMEWARDENS AND UPPER BAILIFF OF THE LIVERY COMPANIES OF THE CITY OF LONDON: 31 MARCH

The Mansion House, London.  It is located short walk away from the Hall on the other side of the Bank of England.

This and the next post give details of two events in the City year that bring the whole livery movement of London together.

On Thursday evening Rosemary and I, accompanied by Alastair Ross and his wife, Judy, were invited to the Mansion House by the Lord Mayor and the Lady Mayoress to dinner.  As the title of this post indicates all one hundred and eight livery companies were invited to dine in the Egyptian Hall with members of the civic City.

It was a great evening and the Lord Mayor and Mrs Barbara Bear made us all most welcome.  It was one of those evenings where I was, yet again, grateful that the Drapers' Company is third in order of precedence.  Speeches are made by the Master Mercer and Master Grocer, who rank first and second respectively, and it was clearly inappropriate that a third master should speak.

Next morning all the livery companies were in St Pauls for the United Guilds' Service.

LIVERY DINNER: 23 MARCH

The Company hosts two major livery dinners a year.  The first in the Spring is the one where traditionally our links with the City are celebrated.  In recent years we have also taken the opportunity to invite the military units to which  we are affiliated.

The second livery dinner in July (see some of my earliest posts) is when the newly appointed Master and senior Wardens take over and the election of the Junior Warden is made public. 

The Livery Dinner is an opportunity for all liverymen to dine at the Hall and for the more senior members of the Livery to bring guests.  Additionally there are a number of Company guests

The Dinner on 23 March was a sell-out and over half the livery were present.  We were delighted to welcome Sheriff Richard Sermon MBE as a guest.  Unfortunately the Lord Mayor and the Aldermanic Sheriff were out of the country in South East Asia carrying out their vital job of selling the City across the world.

Alderman Sir David Lewis responded on behalf of the guests. He is Alderman for the Ward of Broad Street in which the hall stands. In fact Drapers' freeholds count for some 25% of the ward's area. Alderman Sir David neatly meshed with our Welsh Guards link as he is the eighth Welsh Lord Mayor (2007/8) in the City of London's history.  His Welsh roots also links with our work undertaken in North Wales through the Thomas Howell’s Education Fund for North Wales.

Howell was a most successful Welshman who virtually controlled the Anglo-Spanish trade in the early fifteenth century and subsequently endowed a great charity that survives to this day.  He also kept meticulous records of his commercial activities, these survive in our archives.  Accontants may be interested to know that he used an early form of double-entry book-keeping which is the earliest use of this accounting method known in England.

Sir David gave an impassioned plea to protect our armed services from the effects of overzealous reductions while so many are on active service and where the world situation is so uncertain.

I concluded my speech with a short message to the Livery:

'Many of you have made a significant contribution to the work of the Company over recent years. By every measure our collective efforts have been most successful; be it significantly improving our investment position, overseeing the wide range of Company business and our broader charitable activity. In the latter field more specifically education and almshouses. All-in-all there is a great sense of vitality in the Company and this vitality is maintaining our great traditions. But a number of initiatives we have, such as the new Drapers' Academy, will be asking even more of the livery. You have much to give and your huge experience and success in life make you potentially superb mentors to influence, for the better, the lives of others or to contribute your skills and professionalism towards Company projects.

We are living in times where I think we can all see the demand for our charitable activity will only increase. I hesitate to mention the overworked phrase 'The Big Society', it seems to mean everything and nothing, but if it at its heart it's about wanting to give something to others we've been doing this for centuries. One thing I am certain we will be doing it for many more centuries to come.'

The programme of the evening included a musical evening featuring some great baroque music by Handel and Bach on trumpet, strings and harpsichord.  Finally the evening saw a major change with new style chocolates prepared by Paul A Young, one of London's leading edge choclatiers, see http://www.paulayoung.co.uk/ for further details.  They seem to have been well received.

MATTHEW SLATER, PRINCIPAL DRAPERS' ACADEMY STARTS BLOG

Matthew Slater, Principal Drapers' Academy

At the last Drapers' Academy Governors meeting on 29 March Matthew Slater, Principal of the Academy, announced that he had started a blog.  This blog either appears as Principal Slater or Views from the Hill and can be accessed through the Drapers' Academy website.  Go to www.drapersacademy.com

Incidentally the Drapers' Academy website - which is linked to this blog - is developing very well and worth a look if you have a moment

DRAPERS' GARDEN: SPRING HAS ARRIVED

There is a garden to the north of the Hall laid out in formal style.  One indication that spring has arrived is that two magnolia trees in the garden bloom profusely.  The relative warmth of central London means that they flower early and by late March are a magnificent sight and bring a great splash of colour into the heart of the City.

Looking south towards the Hall.  Throgmorton Avenue runs behind the wall to the right.

Again looking north.  The new Drapers' Gardens office building  is the box of glass just visible behind the magnolias to the left.  The Austin Friars building complex, also part of the Company's estate, are ahead and on the right.  The Drapers' Gardens name for the office block is a reminder that the gardens in the foreground are the remains of a substantial open space.  This was used for recreation and market gardening and existed up to a hundred and thirty years ago before the pressure to develop the site and build offices became too great to resist.

TOBACCO PIPE MAKERS AND TOBACCO BLENDERS COURT LUNCHEON: 22 MARCH

Coat of arms of the Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Blenders Company

The Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Blenders held their Election Court Lunch in the Hall on 22 March.  They were kind enough to invite me.  As I have mentioned in past blogs it is always a pleasure to be a guest in one's own Hall and the luncheon with the Tobacco Pipe Makers was no exception. 

The Tobacco Pipe Makers made me most welcome and quite a number of the Court members has links with the trade.  One retired pipemaker ruefully remarked that demand for pipes in England had declined but that demand was holding up in eastern Europe.

The Master, Julian Keevil, and his American wife, Mary, were charming hosts.  Both gave amusing speeches and Mary was particularly interesting in that she spoke about her family links with the City.  She comes from an old Virginian family that had trans-Atlantic links with both civic London and the Haberdashers particularly  in the eighteenth century. 

Julian and Mary now principally live in Virginia on a site where Mary's ancestors lived - Julian is using a lot of saved airmiles commuting regularly to London on Company business.  I think it entirely appropriate that the Master Tobacco Pipe Maker and Tobacco Blender has close roots with Virginia.

For more information about the Company go to http://www.tobaccolivery.org/   On this site you will also find an excellent blog written by the Master.  This has been going for some time and was started by one of his predecessors.

The company very kindly gave me box containing two replica Elizabethan clay pipes

A DRAPERS WALKING STICK

The ram's head

Past Master Stephen Foakes is a talented woodworker and craftsman generally.  Recently, to commemorate my tenure as Master, he gave me a very handsome walking stick.  It is a most imaginative gift and is just the right size.

Thank you Stephen.