Celebrate the City and a banquet at the Mansion House

The Lord Mayor launched the "Celebrate the City" four-day event at an open-air concert in Guildhall Yard and a Private Reception in the Guildhall on Thursday June 21.

Visit the website link above to see all the events around the City this weekend – as well as some exhibitions which extend over the summer.  The concert started with a choral performance with choirs from Music in Offices followed by speeches from the Lord Mayor and the Bishop of London.  The Bishop introduced the Guildhall School of Music and Drama orchestra, which finished the concert with a performance of the 1812 overture. It had rained on and off all day but the power of the Lord Mayor knows no bounds and the rain held off during the concert.

I couldn’t stay for the reception as I was attending the Civic Reception and Dinner at the Mansion House for the City Livery Club.  This was a most enjoyable and lively event, as always sitting next to interesting people and enjoying the splendour of the Egyptian Hall. The speeches took a different turn with the customary toast to the Club by Alderman and Sheriff Alan Yarrow and Deputy and Sheriff Wendy Mead – sung to the tune of The Walrus Song with a chorus for all to sing about the Club with many apologies to Flanders and Swann.

The Lord Mayor’s power was clearly still with us as when I left the dinner the rain had been and gone.

Spitalfields Music Festival

On Tuesday, June 19, we attended a reception in Shoreditch Town Hall with the Lord Mayor and fellow Masters in celebration of the Spitalfields Music Festival. This very worthwhile charity produces two annual music festivals and runs creative music projects throughout the year in the local community. In an area often seen to be full of challenges, they focus on music and its power to bring people together.

The reception was followed by a concert by the Schubert Ensemble in the early eighteenth century St Leonard’s Church in Shoreditch High Street. The concert featured the World Premiere of a new piano quartet by the British composer Huw Watkins, as well as works by Martinu and Dvorák. 

The concert got off to a lively if unwelcome start when, in the second movement of the Martinu, the strings of the viola exploded off.  I have no idea what the technical term is for the piece at the bottom that holds the strings but it is not something you can just stick back on.  Fortunately an audience member who lived close by was dispatched to fetch his instrument – a very nerve-wracking experience for the musician who then had to play a world premiere “cold” on an unfamiliar instrument.  The concert was extremely well reviewed and if The Times did not have a pay wall I could direct you to the review.

Needlemakers learning about making needles!

June was definitely the month for learning more about our industrial heritage.  Only just back from Ironbridge we set off for a visit with fellow Needlemakers to the Forge Hill Needle Museum in Redditch. This is the only opportunity in the UK to learn how needles were made. It is presented in a clear and narrative way and the only opportunity to see the only water driven scouring mill in the world.

We stayed in Stratford-on-Avon and the weekend started officially on Saturday evening with a glass of wine at our hotel, hosted by the Master and Wardens, before walking a few yards to the Royal Shakespeare Theatre for dinner in the rooftop restaurant.  Holidays and excursions like this are such a good way for us to get to know each other better – and to prove to ourselves what a convivial group we are!

Sunday morning we went for our visit to the Museum where we were given some background information in the Visitors’ Centre and then taken through the needlemaking process in the museum – what an unhealthy and dangerous trade it was right through until modern times. 

If you visit Needle Industries in India (as we did several years ago) you will see that this is no longer the case in this very modern and highly mechanised factory, but it certainly was in Victorian and earlier times. The visit to India was led by the then Master, Henry Milward, who joined us on Sunday as well. Henry is a descendent of the founder of Henry Milward & Sons (registered in 1730 in Redditch) and which was known as a maker of good quality needles and at one point was the largest manufacturer in the world.  Clearly it is very rewarding to have such a direct link with the the most successful time of our trade in this country.

We then spent some time looking at the displays where we saw a video about the process sponsored by the Needlemakers – and also saw the wonderful display case of needles, which was restored with our sponsorship.  There are needles old and new and some packaging that will be familiar to some of us. If you visit the museum you will see the black and white cat that has his own cushion amongst the displays.  His name is of course, Henry Milward!

Masters’ Visit to Ironbridge

When you meet other Masters during the year, one of the questions is always “Are you going to Ironbridge?” Every year Masters (and their consorts) of the Livery Companies go with the Lord Mayor to the Ironbridge Gorge Museum for the weekend.  It is an excellent opportunity, not only to see one of our great heritage sites, but also to meet your fellow Masters.

We drove up and decided to use our new Satnav, which stopped receiving a signal just north of Watford and didn’t work again until reset from our computer – not very helpful if you are away!  Fortunately, being a travel pessimist, I also printed out instructions so we managed to make our way to the Holiday Inn in Telford without too much trouble.

The weekend was launched on Friday June 8, with a Livery Dinner at Coalbrookdale where we heard some background to the Museum and the tradition of this visit – bringing ancient and modern livery companies to a significant player in the birth of the industrial revolution. 

We spent Saturday touring the museum sites including the eponymous Iron Bridge – the world’s first cast iron bridge built over the River Severn in 1779.  It had a far reaching effect, not only on the local economy but also on bridge design and the use of cast iron in building.

We also visited the national collections of Coalport and Caughley China in the listed buildings that were home to the famous Coalport China Factory until 1926. It included a fabulous collection of tiles and one wonders how many millions have been destroyed during the years by updating Victorian houses. We watched a demonstration of the making of china flowers by a marvelous young woman who turned out exquisite flowers at huge speed equaled only by the speed of her very engaging chat! Her introduction to the craft was watching someone doing it and saying, “I can do that” and then proving she could.

I also enjoyed the visit to Blists Hill Victorian Town, popping in to the pharmacy (prompted by a colleague who used to work there in summer holidays, dressed in full Victorian kit) where they also have a dentist’s chair and instruments – life is better now!

Saturday ended with a Ball at the Enginuity museum - the Ironbridge Gorge Museum's hands-on design and technology centre which opened in August 2002.

Sunday rounded off the weekend with a behind the scenes tour of the costume project with an exhibition of costumes and where the more adventurous tried on corsets, hooped skirts et al.  This department makes modern replicas of historic dress for other museums as well. We then went to the Darby Houses - one of which Dale House was built in 1717 by the founder of the Coalbrookdale Company, Abraham Darby I, and lived in by five generations of the Darby Family. It overlooked the Upper Furnace Pool and its associated blast furnace, and was the place where hospitality was extended to visitors to both the family and the ironworks. I think this is true hands-on management.

Thanks to the initiative of Piers Nicholson, the current Master of the Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers, we were all provided with a very useful leaflet with photographs of most of the Masters – I am now at the stage where the faces are familiar but the names are not.  The website he has created is very useful www.liverycompanies.com with a complete list of all the London Livery Companies; the names of Masters and Clerks and pictures of the Master and Master’s badge. It also has very useful links to detailed maps to show you where all the Livery Halls are.

St Paul’s Cathedral has a new Dean

On Wednesday, May 30 I went with the Clerk to attend a reception in the Crypt at St Paul’s to meet the new Dean, the Very Reverend Dr David Ison. I was unable to attend his installation the previous week as I was at the RSN exhibition so it was good to have an opportunity to meet him.

The past year few months have been a difficult time for St Paul’s and the appointment of the new Dean is very welcome.  St Paul’s is very important to the City and the Lord Mayor and many of my fellow Masters were there to meet and welcome he and his wife, Hilary, also an ordained priest. If you follow the link above you will read that he drives a kit car he built himself: although he assured us that it was in the basement we were not treated to a view! 

The Lord Chamberlain is commanded by Her Majesty to invite.......

How very exciting to be able to display that invitation to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace.  Masters of Livery Companies are invited to a Garden Party during their year and John and I were privileged to attend on May 29. I was particularly thrilled to be attending in the Jubilee Year – I well remember as a child listening to the Coronation on the short-wave radio (!!) in Johannesburg and then going to see a film of the event in the cinema that weekend.

The weather forecast was for thunderstorms but in the event there were sufficient clouds to keep the temperature bearable but the rain stayed away. 

The Mall up to the Palace is closed to traffic so there is always a scrum of taxis around the Palace for a couple of hours before and after. We decided to make a relaxed day of it and had an excellent lunch at the Bank Westminster Hotel in Buckingham Gate (not the only woman wearing a hat and we did spot one or two other men in morning suit).  We then strolled up to join the queue to get in. 

The organisation was superb – would that everything else ran as smoothly.  You would never believe that there were 8,000 guests as the queue to get through security moved very quickly and there were no queues to speak of for tea. The tea was delicious (although I couldn’t find any cucumber sandwiches). According to press coverage earlier this month the average guest eats 14 items – John managed four and I managed three so someone is eating an awful lot.

The Queen and the rest of the Royal Family arrived and we learned (from the TV news in the evening) that it was the Duchess of Cambridge’s first Garden Party.  She looked stunning and her pale pink dress perfectly complemented the Queen’s lavender dress and coat.  Once they had walked through the crowds everyone relaxed and, I suspect, went back for more tea and cakes.

I have driven around the outside of the grounds of the Palace many times but was still amazed at its size.  It occupies 42 acres and the gardens are beautiful. I have seen part of the gardens before when visiting an exhibition at Buckingham Palace a few years ago and will be returning in the summer to see the exhibition, Diamonds: a Jubilee Celebration, (and around the corner to the Queen’s Gallery to see some of the Leonardo da Vinci drawings in the Royal Collection).

We met so many interesting people from all over the UK – most representing charities.  Very moving talking to a group of War Widows who had come from the Isle of Wight: a reminder that many of the people who were there were invited for far from frivolous reasons.

Royal School of Needlework, Private View, 25 May

John and I attended a preview of the Royal School of Needlework Hand Embroidery Degree Show last week at Hampton Court. The level of skill is exemplary as is the degree of creativity. The School is to be congratulated on the success of its Foundation Degree in Hand Embroidery, which was launched in 2009, and now has accreditation for a further five years. It is the only course of its kind in the UK and students come from not only the UK but also abroad to study here.

The winner of Needlemakers’ stitchcraft award was Charlotte Bailey and we look forward to welcoming her (and the second winner who will be announced on June 7) at our dinner in July.  Charlotte’s work was quirky in concept and very much in tune with an edgier contemporary lifestyle but the stitching was meticulous and in the finest needlecraft tradition.

Another exhibit that caught my eye, which was less about stitching but very quaint (in a modern way), was by Joanne Pyner.  The dolls’ heads are from dolls that have been given to her – abandoned. They are visually very attractive and at the same time slightly surreal and disturbing.