Hammersmith school to bop at this year’s 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 06 October 2006

Cambridge School, a special educational needs school in Hammersmith, will be joining in with the celebrations at this year’s Lord Mayor’s Show. Children from the school will be devising and performing street theatre and dance alongside Ujamaa Arts project. Ujamaa Arts Project is one of six London groups to have received an exclusive invitation and £10,500 in funding from the City of London to build their own float for inclusion in the annual spectacular the Lord Mayor’s Show. This year’s show is set to be one of the biggest, most vibrant and culturally diverse in the parade’s near-800 year history. Military marching bands will unite with urban hip-hop sounds, inner-city kids will strut their stuff alongside City workers and dazzling charity floats will wow the crowds in the world’s oldest street procession. Over the next few months children from Hammersmith’s Cambridge School will be hard at work learning new skills and developing their creative and artistic flair to entertain thousands of attending spectators, and millions watching worldwide, when the parade hits the streets of London on Saturday 11th November. 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. The Lord Mayor’s community float scheme gives London’s community projects the funding they need to educate and inspire local children, encouraging them to put their talents to good use and providing the perfect platform to display them. They will be working alongside expert performers and designers to create a show stopping performance that they can really be proud of. Ujamaa Arts Project will be bringing West African influences to their performance using traditional and contemporary music and art to explore the economic, political and cultural relationship between Britain and the Commonwealth. Children from Cambridge School in Hammersmith will join in with schools in the Hackney area to create dance and street theatre which will celebrate the Queen’s 80th Birthday and also explore traditional African religions. Pa ‘C’ Quaye from Ujamaa Arts Project said: “Our involvement with the Lord Mayor’s show will help local children learn about the traditions, history, and beliefs of West African countries and how they have blended and integrated into modern British culture.” To be a part of the celebrations, just get to the City for the morning of Saturday 11th November and nab a place on the well-marked route. The procession will weave its way from Guildhall, in the heart of the City, through the historic streets of the Square Mile, passing Bank Tube, Mansion House and St. Paul’s Cathedral before continuing to the Royal Courts of Justice in the Strand.

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