Beating the Bounds

Beating The Bounds - St Lawrence Jewry - Tuesday 2nd June 2015

The Master's half yearly report

Master’s Report - five months in office … 17th of September 2014 to 17th February 2015 … from my Installation to our Company’s Banquet at Vintners’ Hall.

September 2014  

We had agreed a new format for the Installation Ceremony. A late morning Court Meeting was followed by my Installation service at St Lawrence Jewry, Guildhall, which was attended by the Bishop of Newcastle, the Rt Reverend Martin Wharton. Following the church service, lunch was held at the Armourers’ Hall with a speech by the Bishop. The new arrangements were well received and I anticipate similar arrangements will be planned for my successor later this year.

The following day I took part in the Master’s Walk, and in full regalia over 30 Masters proceeded around most of the Livery Halls in the City. It was a good introduction to many newly appointed Masters, many of whom I have continued to see regularly at dinners and functions over the ensuing five months.

The Joyce Kennedy Memorial Lecture on tax affairs was held at the Launderers’ Hall with splendid views of the Thames and the drinks reception which followed provided the best canapés that I have been served so far during my year to date!

A musical evening at Mercer’s Hall with a piano recital by Mei Yi Foo, winner of the BBC Best Newcomer Award 2013, and a superb German baritone, Benjamin Appl, former Mercer’s Scholar at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama allowed Mercer’s Hall to showcase their new Italian Fazioli grand piano.  

Common Hall was a great experience and it was a privilege to witness one of the great traditions of the City of London – the Installation of the new Lord Mayor.

October 2014

Another musical evening this time at St Paul's Cathedral provided a spectacular setting for some wonderful choral music although the Dean alarmed all of us by fainting at the end of the service – fortunately recovering fully and we learned afterwards perhaps the reason was the result of having given blood earlier that day.



Dinner at the Leadenhall Building - hosted by Past Master Michael Welbank in his role as Chairman of the City of London Planning Committee – provided a spectacular panorama of London from the 39th floor. What a marvellous building! I wonder how the architects settled on the floor to ceiling height? With a diminishing floor plate area as you rise up through the building an open plan format offers interesting architectural challenges regarding awareness of the ceiling height.






The Prize-Giving ceremony at the Guildhall for the City of London Girls School was enhanced by the pomp and ceremony of civic dignitaries attending the event. The highlight of the afternoon for me was the exceptionally talented sixth former who played a movement from a Mozart violin concerto accompanied by the school orchestra. She gave a performance of professional concert hall standard which was breath-taking – what talent!

A fundraising gala dinner for Treloar’s School at the Mansion House raised over £125,000.00. The school founded by a former Lord Mayor, provides specialist support for mentally and physically handicapped young people. 



A happy band of intrepid explorers ventured north for a weekend visit to Newcastle. Exploring Tyneside and a taste Northumberland we were fortunate to have superb weather. An eclectic mix of architecture at the Newcastle University campus was described by the Upper Warden as a zoo of buildings – a contrast to the splendour of Sir John Vanburgh’s Seaton Delaval Hall and the Duchess of Northumberland's latest attempts to create a spectacular water garden feature at Alnwick Castle. 

The Members exhibition at Painters and Stainers Hall concluded a busy October.

November 2014

This month started with the Remembrance Day Service in the garden of St Paul's Cathedral.

A dinner was held at Temple Bar – an initiative by the Upper Warden to stimulate interest in a new award scheme for the WCCA. This is a venue we should use again without doubt!

Dinners and events followed apace leading up to the weekend at High Wycombe for the Teambuilding competition. Personally, I found this to be a very interesting and valuable experience although I understand some of my predecessors found it less rewarding. A concluding Wash-Up Dinner was held at the Caledonian Club at the end of February – the last event of my five months in office.

The Lord Mayor's annual address by the incoming new holder of this ancient post, Alan Yarrow, gave a welcoming and inclusive speech – and I hope we can build on his open and receptive tone by promoting the WCCA’s Global Hub Initiative. 

The Silent Ceremony, another great traditional event proceeded the Lord Mayor's Parade on the following day.

Amid tight security there was a great atmosphere of excitement and enjoyment.

My Master’s Reception at Lambeth Palace was oversubscribed and we enjoyed a comprehensive tour of the buildings and gardens. Simon Ablett is the architect responsible for the recently commenced repairs to the 1650's Great Hall and lantern, to include a new stone floor with underfloor heating.

The highlight lunch of December was at the Old Bailey with the Judiciary hosted by Sheriff Fiona Adler. 

Our Carol Service at St Lawrence Jewry held jointly with the Constructors was well attended and we enjoyed hearing Catherine Ennis play the organ and lead the choir through the inaugural performance of a new carol I had commissioned – ‘Hodie’

Struggling with a viral infection early in the New Year I attended the New Year Service at St Michael’s, Cornhill with the first lesson read by Mark Carney, Governor of the Bank of England – just across the road from his office!

This short summary of an extremely busy five months of events and functions was rounded off by our Annual Banquet at Vintners’ Hall with the Thames Fanfare Brass Ensemble providing a lively and sparkling musical interlude. Lord Shipley gave a lively and challenging speech on behalf of the guests.

Master's Newcastle Weekend - 11th October 2014

Many thanks again to Tom Ball for producing some wonderful photographs showing various aspects of Newcastle upon Tyne during my Master's Weekend Visit in Newcastle upon Tyne.

***

The Master's visit to the North East

Newcastle, awash with fine buildings and dramatic infrastructure, generously extended its indian summer to embrace the Masters’ Weekend, ensuring a memorable stay in the northern city for the members of the Company who accompanied Geoffrey and Anne Purves on a tour of geordie architectural highlights.

Grey Street

Local conservation architect Cyril Winskill kicked the weekend off in great style, leading us around Grainger Town along the magnificent Grey Street - one of the finest enfilades of Georgian frontages in the land - through the terracotta-clad Central Arcade, the 1930s Tyneside Cinema (restored by Fletcher Priest), what’s left of Eldon Square (destroyed in the 1970s by Chapman Taylor’s huge shopping centre) and then into St. Nicolas’ Cathedral where Geoffrey is a lay Canon. Across the street is the RIBA Enterprises building where the institute runs NBS and RIBA Services. CEO Richard Waterhouse told us of his plans to buy and refurbish the whole site in order to accommodate the growing staff, boosted by RIBAE’s global BIM business.

Civic Centre - with sea horses

Then on to one of the highlights of the tour - the Civic Centre designed by City Architect George Kenyon and opened in 1967. The Grade ii* building is beautifully maintained and popular to work in. It is the sort of building that restores one’s faith in the values of sound detailing, quality materials and self-effacing design with moments of exuberance (most of them involving sea horses, inspired by the city’s coat of arms). The Lord Mayor generously hosted us in the City’s Silver Gallery, despite having spent the previous night trying to get to sleep, unsuccessfully, in the Knights Park football ground in aid of the homeless.

Dinner followed with David Faulkner, an old friend of Geoffrey’s and Anne’s and a former leader of the City Council. David gave us the benefit of his political experience with an informed analysis of planning and regeneration in the city, particularly the refusal of Newcastle to house the North Music Centre, a new arts centre or share a bridge with their neighbours to the south. 

As a result Gateshead now benefits from the Baltic, the Sage and the Millennium Bridge - our ports of call the next morning.

Jaki Howes and Daniel Buren glazing  

We were guided through the Baltic by director Godfrey Worsdale and enjoyed a tour of the colourful work of French artist Daniel Buren. Godfrey discussed the impact of the centre on the cultural life of the city and praised the designs by Ellis Williams - represented in our group by Rosemary Curry. We then moved on to Foster and Partners’ Sage centre next door, which delivers a splendid public space beneath its blobby shell as well as three very different performance areas - an intimate in-the-round theatre, a rehearsal space and an elegant shoe box concert hall.

Seaton Delaval

Nostalgia loomed as we toured the University Campus - the alma mater of Geoffrey and Deputy Master Mervyn Miller. Mervyn was particularly delighted to find that a hefty stone capital which he and other students had placed outside the department of architecture many years earlier was still in it’s place. The campus is a bit of a zoo of buildings by the likes of Basil Spence, William Whitfield and Sheppard Robson held together by more recent public space improvements by local-boy-made-good Terry Farrell. Farrell also had a hand in the refurbishment of the Great North Museum, a project carried out in conjunction with Purves Ash as conservation architects.

After a half hour bus journey out of Newcastle through rather bland countryside, Vanbrugh’s Seaton Delaval comes as a shock. Its brooding façade stands sentinel over a commanding vista that sweeps down to the estuary of the River Blyth and the North Sea. One of the Seaton architect’s finest houses, it is currently being stabilised by the National Trust having stood as an empty ruin since the interior was destroyed by fire in 1822. 

The chiaroscuro of Vanbrugh’s deep set stonework was enhanced by the autumnal sun and by the patchwork of dark staining that none of us could identity - was it pollution, the effects of the fire or was it lichen? Not even the conservation architects amongst us could provide the answer.

Byker Wall

Before repairing chez Purves for dinner we visited Alnwick Garden created by the Duchess of Northumberland and Jacques and Peter Wirtz. Although there were many nice details, the overall strategy of Disneyfication of landscape and the overblown design of the central cascade feature seems out of context with the looming context of Alnwick Castle itself, in spite of elegant interventions by Hopkins Architects and water sculptor Bill Pye.

On Sunday I took the opportunity to revisit Ralph Erskine’s Byker Wall. While looking a little worse for wear, the estate - built between 1969 and 1982 - illustrates the importance of placemaking in creating amenable living environment. It was an appropriate end to a most enjoyable and informative weekend.

Peter Murray - Upper Warden

Master's Miscellany 1

Past Master Mervyn Miller and David Penning entertaining
 the Master Firefighter, Beryl Jeffery, at the curry lunch
on HQS Wellington on 30 September. after Common Hall .

Common Hall is an event, attended by Liverymen,  held at the Guildhall where the Lord Mayor is elected.

HQS Wellington is a Grimsby-Class Sloop, moored on the Thames, just below Temple Stairs. and is the "Hall" of the  Honourable Company of Master Mariners.

Beryl Jeffery is an architect by training.