Furniture Makers Summer Barbeque

A small group of 30 liverymen and their guests enjoyed a superb barbeque on a warm summer evening aboard HQS Wellington moored on the Thames embankment

With glorious views along the busy river spanning the City landscape to the Palace of Westminster a barbeque of several meats and fish accompanied by generous quantities of wines, beer and Pimms was served by delightful staff from the City caterer

Originally built as a warship in 1934, HQS Wellington has been the Livery Hall of the Master Mariners’ Company since 1948 and we were lucky that the Clerk, Commodore Angus Menzies, joined us and introduced us to the history of the ship and accompanied us on tours of the vessel from the bridge down to the engine room, now the Court Room for the Master Mariners

We were free to roam all through the evening and Master Tony Smart was delighted to excercise his skills in attempting to get the ship’s radar working. The major problem seemed to be finding the on-off switch!

Prior to the BBQ we took the opportunity to visit Two Temple Place, one of London’s architectural gems, an extraordinary late Victorian mansion built by William Waldorf Astor on the Embankment. Terry Barber, the gallery steward, introduced the guided tour with a brief background of Astor, reputedly then the richest man in the world, who had once purchased a little island off the East coast of America – now known as Manhattan!

The building was designed for use primarily as Astor’s estate office by one of the foremost neo-Gothic architects of the late nineteenth-century, John Loughborough Pearson.  Finished in 1895, the building has an extraordinary, opulent interior and was used in the filming of Downton Abbey.

The evening ended aboard Wellington with thanks to Debby Johnson and her Events team for another most enjoyable Company occasion amongst good friends