Take your place for the Lord Mayor’s Show

John Stuttard, on the occasion of his election by the City Livery Companies to the role of Lord Mayor of London.

Notes for Editors

For further information, please contact Lesley Mair at the City of London Corporation on 020 7332 1754 or email: lesley.mair@cityoflondon.gov.uk

The Role of the Lord Mayor

The Lord Mayor of the City of London is an international ambassador for the UK financial services industry and spends up to 80 days a year traveling to around 20 countries to promote this industry and the Square Mile as a place of excellence in which to do business.

As head of the City of London the Lord Mayor is involved with local government and London-wide issues, ranging from the City of London’s work in the regeneration of neighbouring boroughs to transport and environmental issues which affect the City.

On behalf of the Sovereign and the Government, he also acts as host when the City of London provides hospitality for visiting heads of state and foreign dignitaries. In addition, the Lord Mayor provides a platform for Government Ministers to make keynote speeches. The Prime Minister attends the Lord Mayor’s annual Banquet at Guildhall, whilst the Bankers’ Dinner each June is the occasion for the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s annual keynote speech, known as the Mansion House Speech. The Easter Banquet, also held at Mansion House, is the major annual opportunity for all London’s diplomats to listen to the Foreign and Commonwealth Secretary. Other Cabinet members and international business figures also value these opportunities.

The Lord Mayor also presides over meetings of the Court of Common Council and Court of Aldermen, and attends Livery events and charitable projects. He receives visiting overseas ministers and senior businessmen and keeps in close contact with City institutions and firms as well as travelling to other UK financial centres to keep in touch with regional economic activity. In his year of office he will make some 600 speeches on a wide variety of subjects from City financial matters to charity and patronage.

Some facts about the Lord Mayor’s Show

• First Lord Mayor was elected in 1215; the Show is now in its 793rd year.
• The procession is on Saturday 11th November, beginning at Mansion House at 11.02am. The Show takes place annually on the second Saturday in November.
• At 5pm, the Lord Mayor will light the touch paper to the spectacular Lord Mayor’s Fireworks display on the River Thames between Blackfriars and Waterloo Bridge. Over a ton of fireworks will light up the sky in what is London’s largest annual fireworks display.
• The word “float”, used to describe components of a parade or procession, is derived from the Lord Mayor’s Show when originally the exhibits would do just that, “float” along the Thames.
• Pageantmaster Dominic Reid’s key tasks include overseeing the design, production and organisation of the Lord Mayor’s Show to ensure that it runs like clockwork including timings down to the second.
• It has previously been painted by Canaletto, drawn by Hogarth, referred to by Shakespeare, described by Samuel Pepys and featured in Ian Fleming’s James Bond novel, Dr. No.
• This year there will be 6,040 participants, 1550 military personnel, 249 vehicles from Morris Minors to open top buses, 71 floats, 14 bands of all shapes and sizes and 116 Military horses. The total length of the parade will be approximately 3 miles!

City of London Corporation

The ancient City of London Corporation has a 21st-century role supporting the business city as the world’s leading international financial and business centre. The City of London Corporation provides local government services for the City of London “Square Mile” at the heart of London – but its responsibilities also extend far beyond the City boundaries and include paying for and running the Barbican Centre, Epping Forest, Hampstead Heath, and three wholesale food markets, as well as acting as the London Port Health Authority.

Press release published Friday 29 September 2006

The 2006 Lord Mayor’s Show is set to be one of the biggest, most vibrant and culturally diverse in the parade’s near-800 year history, as it winds through the streets of the City of London on Saturday 11th November.

More than 6,000 people of all ages will take part in the three mile long procession, having put in hours of painstaking preparation to their floats and costumes, dance routines and musical masterpieces over the past year.

Blending tradition with modernity, this year’s Show, which will introduce the 679th Lord Mayor to the City of London, features Hong Kong acrobats and fleets of customised Morris Minors and Rolls Royces alongside military marching bands, singers, dancers and even Kazakh horsemen.

One of the key components of the Show is developing social and practical skills of young people in London and beyond by encouraging and supporting their participation. This underlines the ethos that the City of London is a City of learning, nationally and internationally.

In return, many participants proclaim that the Show truly changes their lives. From school kids whose involvement in float and costume design contributes to their GCSE art qualifications, or gets them a place on college fashion and photography courses to homeless people learning how to ride a bike. A participant from homeless charity St Mungos, which took part in the 2003 Show, said he had enjoyed “the best day of his life”.

The City of London Corporation has this year funded six community floats from City fringe boroughs to the tune of £10,500 each:

• Hackney-based Albion’s Real Estate will bring together rival housing estates from across the East London borough to create a music and dance set.

• Arts for All, from Shoreditch, East London will include tricycles and circus entertainers in their colourful entry.

• A huge, mechanical Bengali tiger from East London group Kinetika will roar its way through the City, surrounded by school children dancing to a traditional Bengali drumming and percussion group.

• Clapham-based Mandinga’s entry will have a real South London-meets-Brazil Carnival flair with outrageous costumes based on the surreal work of Flemish artist Hieronymus Bosch.

• The entry from Praxis, based in Bethnal Green, East London will have a truly international flair blending influences from Africa, Latin America and Asia to create a dance routine to the sound of drums.

• Ujaama has been working with colleges in Hackney in East London and a special needs school in Hammersmith in West London to create a Ghanaian and Nigerian atmosphere for their celebration of the Queen’s 80th birthday. Expect African costumes and masks!

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