Our annual Livery Company year always starts during the month of October and this autumn, after a most successful year, during which we have been led with considerable style and panache by Master Richard Green, we will enter the mastership of current Master-Elect, Kevin Parry. For the first time in a decade, we have just secured Goldsmiths’ Hall for the next Installation Dinner. It has arguably the City’s finest hall and reception rooms. For dinner, that hall will be lit entirely by candlelight and we anticipate an exquisite collection of gold, gilt and jewellery will be on display in there and downstairs. Our speaker for the evening is Lord Grimstone, who served in Boris Johnson’s administration as Minister of State for International Trade and BEIS. He is known for his deep understanding of China and India trade relations. Formerly, as Sir Gerry Grimstone, he was Chairman of Barclays Bank PLC and Standard Life Aberdeen plc. He has also served as an independent non-executive of Deloitte, played a senior role in the City Civic, was the senior independent director at the Ministry of Defence, a corporate financier at Schroders and a civil servant, specialising in privatisations. His diverse experience will doubtless result in a fascinating after dinner speech. Tickets: £149 Time: 6.30pm - Drinks, 7pm - Call for Dinner, 10.30pm - Carriages Dress: Black Tie or Livery Uniform with Badges and Decorations Please book below where possible If unable to book online, please contact Clare Ferrar on clareferrar@accountantslivery.org or 07828 554967

This year's Spring Dinner will see us return to a firm favourite; Drapers' Hall, on Wednesday 10th April. The drinks reception and dinner will immediately follow our Common Hall, the Livery Company's AGM, which all Freeman and Liverymen are invited to attend. (Guests of those who attend will be entertained outside while CH is going on.) The Drapers' Livery Hall is one of the finest grand rooms anywhere in London. The vast ceiling is adorned with scenes from Shakespeare’s plays ‘The Tempest’ and ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and around the walls is displayed some splendid silver. Marble-columned, galleried, gilded and hung with royal portraits, this is where members of the Royal Family and other heads of state have dined. No surprise then, that it regularly appears on television as Buckingham Palace. The Master's principal speaker for the evening is Baroness Ruth Davidson PC, who was a highly energetic and successful leader of the Conservatives in Scotland for many years and now speaks with equal eloquence in the Lords. As we will be meeting up in the shadow of a looming General Election, she will doubtless be able to tell us precisely what is going on in British politics just now! Tickets: £149 Time: 6.30pm - Drinks, 7pm - Call for Dinner, 10.30pm - Carriages Dress: Black Tie or Livery Uniform with Badges and Decorations Please book below where possible If unable to book online, please contact Clare Ferrar on clareferrar@accountantslivery.org or 07828 554967

This year's Banquet will be held at Mansion House on Tuesday, 23rd July. The occasion is always the highpoint of our Livery's year, and this occasion will be no exception. As many Members will know, until the mid-18th century, Lord Mayors used their own houses or livery halls for their work as head of the City's governmental, judicial and civic functions. The idea of creating a permanent residence came after the Great Fire of 1666 to provide a house for Lord Mayors who did not have their own livery hall. The first stone was laid in 1739, and the first Lord Mayor to take up residence was Sir Crispin Gascoigne. The House was completed in 1758. Imposingly Palladian in style, it is faced by a grand temple portico at the front approached by flights of steps each side. The entertaining rooms were built on the first and second floors. The first floor had a roofless courtyard (later covered to form the Salon, the entertainment space) and the great Egyptian Hall. The second floor has a ballroom and private apartments of the Lord Mayor and family. After we have dined, Members and their guests will hear from The Chairman of the Bank of England, David Roberts. David's career began at Barclays, where he worked for over 20 years, rising to sit on the main board. He has also been Vice-Chair of NHS England, Chairman of Nationwide, and Deputy Chairman of Lloyds Banking Group. Currently however, his role as Chairman of our nation's central bank keeps him extremely busy and he will no doubt be keen to explain what the Bank of England is currently doing and why - rather brave, really, to a room full of chartered accountants! Tickets: £169 Time: 6.30pm - Drinks, 7pm - Call for Dinner, 10.30pm - Carriages...

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