From the Clerk’s desk

As Dame Fiona’s Master’s year nearly concludes, I thought it would be helpful to reflect on some of the highlights this year.

For the Livery, we have had the highest number of freedom applications to join the Company since I to over as Clerk in 2018, and those that have joined have all been active in attending company events.

Moving on to company events, the post COVID malaise seems to be behind us with virtually all events in 2023/24 either reaching capacity before the event or being close to our maximum. For Common Hall at the election of the Sheriffs we were overbooked. This is very encouraging as lots of other Livery Companies wanted to come to our Hall for lunch. Interest from external clients to book events at the Hall has exceeded our expectations and a big thanks to Stanley for being so accommodating.

Debbie, our Finance Assistant leaves us at the end of September to take on the role of Clerk at the Plumbers Company. We wish her every success in her new role. Emmaus, our Accountants will take over Debbie’s finance function then and I am pleased to introduce Jane Nicole who will be the person allocated to the role from the 1st October.

We have a new Master, Lynda Marston-Weston being installed on the 1st August. Lynda has many good plans like publishing the future menus for events on the website, together with the alternative choices made by the food and wine committee. She has also arranged two wine tasting evenings in her year which are always very popular.

The Hall continues to present its challenges for us. The lift has broken down three times this year and is currently working, but very slowly. We are told by the maintenance contractor that we need some major work to get it back into service. Also we have an office on the third floor which the Firefighters vacated in April which we are currently trying to let . Many of you will know that we have an investment property in Fleet Street which contains a retail unit. The previous tenant vacated the property in August 2022 and so far we have been unable to find a new tenant. The additional downside is that we have been incurring vacant business rates for the last 21 months. So the property aspects are taking up a lot of my time at the moment.

In the meantime, I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at the events planned for 2024/25 and to say that in addition to the events being listed on the website, we will be posting a pocket diary together with the new Livery list to you in early August

R B Moule 

Clerk