Livery Banquet at Butchers’ Hall on 23 November 2009
For our traditional guest banquet the Master, James de Sausmarez, brought us to Butcher’s Hall in the heart of London’s Smithfield and next to Bart’s Hospital. Being a keen beef eater, the Master has always had a soft spot for Butchers’ Hall where he had enjoyed many good lunches when the Joiner’s Charitable Trustees meetings were held there. The Master Butcher, Jeffrey Davies, was a welcome guest and his staff did not disappoint with an excellent spread of smoked salmon, roast beef and Yorkshire pudding and apple crumble tart washed down with some excellent wine. “A jolly good boy’s dinner” a number of appreciative Liverymen were heard to say and the anticipation had clearly been great as the dinner was very well attended.
The principal guest and speaker was Rupert Pennant-Rea, the former Deputy Governor of the Bank of England, who we all anticipated would give us some insights into the extraordinary stock markets and the challenges facing the UK economy. Rupert, however, sensing the mood of the Livery, decided against anything so dry and told a number of witty stories including one about three parrots, two of whom had impressive abilities and were expensively priced, and the third of whom could do nothing but was even more expensive. When asked why the shopkeeper explained that the other two parrots called him Chairman! In his toast to the Master, Past Master David Latham reminded the Livery of its most famous Master, the Radical John Wilkes, who famously responded to the heckle “You will either die by the sword or the pox” with the famous retort “That depends on whether I embrace your principles or your Mistress!”
A musical interlude was provided by “Tenorissimi”, a new vocal group of three tenors from the Guildhall School of Music and the quality of their performance was acclaimed by all present. As always a stirrup cup enabled us all to live up to our name of the “Jolly Joiners” before heading for our trains home.