CityandLivery

It has been said that the City throws away nothing it finds to be useful, and this is true of many of its ancient customs and traditions handed down through the centuries. While the City is a place of tradition and heritage it also at the vanguard of modernity; a centre of excellence for innovation in business; finance; technology; law; and a champion of diversity and inclusion in the commercial; civic, and livery realms.  Nowhere is this more apparent the way the Livery Companies and the City's civic institutions have evolved to encourage greater diversity among their membership. Many companies have signed up to the Diversity Charter , others have codified their own principles of inclusion. At a practical level all Livery Companies now admit women; the Lady Past Masters Association has grown to nearly 200 members since the first female Master, Sylvia Tutt (1983-84) and the first female Lord Mayor, Mary Donaldson (1983-84). Somewhere between a third and a half of the Livery Company...

The traditions of the City of London and its Livery Companies rival those of the Royal Household for their displays of pageantry and public spectacle, blending of the past with the present and sense of majesty that no other city can rival. The fact that more troops of the Crown participate in the annual Lord Mayor's Show than parade in the Sovereign's annual birthday parade (Trooping the Colour) illustrates the scale of the City's ability to put on a show. In fact the very word show when taken to mean a public spectacle derives from the requirement that the City's elected chief magistrate 'show himself' to the Monarch or his justices and swear allegiance, hence the Lord Mayor's Show. The early 20th century antiquarian and author Dr George Williamson captured the panoply of City ceremonial in Curious Survivals, a book presented to Queen Mary and now in the Royal Collection. The opening chapter of his comprehensive work on British customs and traditions read...

Raising the standard of heraldic knowledge among the Livery - aptly by opening with my own heraldic standard! Petitioning for a grant of arms is, without a doubt, among the most unusual things I have done and yet it has been one of the most fascinating experiences, triggering a study of the subject that has proven immensely rewarding. The result of the petitioning process will also outlast me because arms are hereditary in English law and have already passed to my children. I believe that every Liveryman should, if they have the qualification, means and motivation, petition the Crown for a grant of arms to continue the City's centuries old custom of burgesses acquiring armorial bearings. When the Heralds last conducted a systematic survey of armigerous persons in the City of London the late 1700s almost 1 in 3 of the residents of some of the City's wards were armigerous (had a lawful right to armorial bearings). That is a vast concentration of gentry in a tiny area and ref...

This blog article is based on an interview I conducted with Keith Lawrey, winner of the City Livery Club's Root and Branch Award (2017). The Root and Branch Award recognises the Liveryman who has made an outstanding contribution to the wider aims of the Livery, and is usually presented by the Lord Mayor of London at the City Livery Club's annual civic luncheon in the City. Keith achieved his award for decades of pro bono work for the Livery Companies specifically guiding them through the process of obtaining a first Royal Charter, supplemental Royal Charters or making amendments to an existing Royal Charter. In 2020 I conducted a further podcast interview with Charles Hughes, Past Master of the Worshipful Company of Information Technologists. It was during Charles' year as Master that the Company's Royal Charter was presented. This article explores the reasons why a Livery Company would want to petition the Crown for a Royal Charter and the process as it stands to...