CityandLivery

The Ward Clubs of the City of London are one of those curious creatures that exist only in the eco-system of the City and find no direct parallel anywhere else in the UK. Part social club, part residents' association, part platform for engagement with voters, and part fabric of the City's cultural heritage the Ward Clubs vary in age, size, vibrancy and engagement with the residents, workers, voters and institutions of their respective ward. This blog article explores the origins, role and relevance of the Ward Clubs in the 21st century, at a time when many (but not all) of them appear to have retired to comfortable obscurity as quiet social clubs for persons of a certain age, but perhaps they are needed more than ever to engage with the growing and changing City residential and working population. When did the Ward Clubs begin? The origins of the several of Ward Clubs may be found in early residents or rate payers associations, initially formed to keep down the rates in t...

As with so much else in the City of London, a simple question such as ‘How many Livery Halls are there in the City?’ results in a very complex and confusing answer. This is what I have discovered about the relationship between Halls and Companies following nearly 5 years or research on the topic: How many Livery Halls are there in the City? Answer: 37, 38, 39 or 40 (it depends) The count is complicated by the location of three halls: HQS WELLINGTON is the home of the Honourable Company of Master Mariners and is their Livery Hall. Clearly it is not on terra firma but it does have one anchor inside the City limits. If you accept HQS WELLINGTON then we move on to.... Glaziers, Launderers and Scientific Instrument Makers Hall (one hall) is fully on the South side of London Bridge but has one wall against the bridge footings, which is considered ‘within the City’ as Bridge Ward was merged with Bridge Without Ward (Southern side). This precarious connection leads us to the third h...

The City of London's electoral system is rather different from other towns and cities in the UK and apt to attract excitable articles in the press and media that are almost always based upon ill informed, biased opinion that lacks an objective, factual basis. The differences in the electoral system in the City are a product of its very long and complex history (spanning over 1,000 years) and its unique status as a city which has approximately 100 commute in workers (circa 513,000, 2018 Corporation of London) for every registered resident voter (circa 5,500, 2016 Corporation of London). This combination of long and complex history and unique status has resulted in three different electorates: The residents The business voters (some of whom are residents, most are commuters) The livery This article explores each of these electorates and their involvement with the election of the City's government. The Residents The residents are perhaps the easiest electorate to u...

The London cabbie is an iconic symbol and a national treasure known and recognised the world over. I was raised to believe that the London cabbie was the gold standard of taxi driver and their knowledge of London lore was second to none. When it came to deciding who would be best man at my wedding, the choice was simple and a London cabbie did the honours. Recently my bubble of confidence in the London cabbie has been burst by a series of embarrassing tweets from cabbies unable to differentiate between the Lord Mayor of (the City of) London and the Mayor of London. In my view no self-respecting London cabbie should be plying for hire on the streets of London who does not know the difference and is unable to give a potted history of the office of Lord Mayor over his (or her) left shoulder to a captive audience while the meter is running. An exception might be made for the suburban cabbie who never strays beyond Edmonton or Catford, but no Green Badge cabbie (i.e., one permitted to w...

Most Freemen or Liverymen (both terms import both genders) of a City of London Livery Company will have a good understanding of their own Company and perhaps a general awareness of the other Livery Companies operating in the City. The particularly motivated Liveryman might even be a member of more than one Livery Company and there are a small number of Liverymen who have connections with Guilds and Merchant Companies outside of London. However awareness of the provincial Guilds is at best vague and more typically a mystery to most among the City Livery Companies. Awareness of the provincial Guilds is often no better in the cities where they exist, even less so when the Guilds have expired leaving only an association of Freemen such as is the case in Lincoln and Norwich, both cities had a substantial number of Guilds modelled on their London brethren for which there is plenty of evidence in their respective Guildhalls. Arms of the defunct Norwich Goldsmiths' Company, similar t...