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With Renter Warden Terry Fenner Leitao -
Glaziers' Hall from London Bridge -
Honorary Ward Clerk Elise Ward Rasmussen
Modern Liveries' Dinner
21st September 2026Glaziers' Hall
What better way to spend my 24th wedding anniversary than at the Modern Livery Companies’ six-monthly dinner, hosted this time around by the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers, in their home at Glaziers’ Hall?
Despite its position on the south side of the river, the Hall - built in 1808 as the Hibernia Wharf - has special City status, as it adjoins London Bridge.
Our own Company has history with Glaziers’ Hall. On 1 October 1981, the Court purchased a non-voting share in the Hall for a down payment of £7,500, giving us the right to use it for one day or two half-days each year for the next 75 years, together with some storage space and a small display case. At the time, the sums seemed to make sense.
When I first joined the Company in 2002, we were still making use of our allocation, but a few years later, around 2009, the Court agreed to surrender our share. It is always nice to return to this stately building every now and then.
I walked across London Bridge amongst the early evening crowds leaving the City - spotting Past Master Elise Rasmussen's name on the Candlewick Ward Honours Board on the way - to find several Masters already installed in The Mudlark, where we enjoyed a little pre-reception of our own before heading into Glaziers’. Renter Warden Terry Fenner Leitao had kindly agreed to join me for the evening, and together we entered the reception in the atmospheric London Bridge Arches beneath the Hall, where the meeting and greeting began.
Dinner was soon called, and we headed upstairs to the River Room, with its beautiful floor-to-ceiling views across the Thames towards Fishmongers’ Hall, with St Paul’s and The Shard providing a magnificent backdrop.
I soon found myself in one of those “Oh my goodness!” Livery connections conversations with the Thames Warden of the Water Conservators’ Company, which took us from Oxford to Monkton Combe and back to Cumnor in the space of a couple of courses.
The Master Scientific Instrument Maker, Jane Fishwick, gave an excellent welcoming speech before introducing her guest speaker, one of her own Liverymen, Jessica Leigh Jones MBE. A former UK Young Engineer of the Year, Jessica has a degree in astrophysics and is the inventor of a series of fibre optic technologies. As well as an extensive non-executive portfolio, she is a Visiting Professor at the University of Wales and a champion of women in engineering in Wales, for which she received her MBE in 2020.
After dinner, we returned to the vaults for a stirrup cup, where one or two boxes of snuff had appeared from various pockets, before eventually ending up in the Barrowboy & Banker on London Bridge. The Master Communicator and I eventually decided to withdraw gracefully, and we walked back to the City together across the bridge, leaving one or two hardy souls behind.
Many thanks to the Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers for another lovely Livery evening — and for providing such an enjoyable way to soften the blow of not spending my wedding anniversary at home.
PHOTOS TO FOLLOW