It’s been a gas!

On Monday morning I tweeted about a gas leak in Coleman Street, round the back of Moorgate, and it turns out that the most affected company was Legal & General, who decamped to a disaster recovery facility in Southwark until the leak was fixed. City AM’s description that:
“the road outside L&G’s Coleman Street corporate headquarters was in a state of disarray in the morning as workers frantically fought to deal with the leak, which had occurred during the night”
seems a bit overblown as you can tell in the photo the two-man workforce doesn’t seem particularly frantic and are definitely not fighting anything.

I poked my head round the corner this morning and there’s an even bigger hole in front of the building than there was on Monday and the pungent smell of gas still hangs in the air (even in the rain) but there were people going in and out of the building so I assume all’s working normally in there, though I guess they won’t be going outside for a quick smoke…

It certainly made me think about what I’d do if I got sent to Southwark for a couple of days, far from the familiar cafes, coffee shops and airy markets of the Square Mile. I’d probably end up walking back across the river just to find something I recognise. I’m sure Southwark’s lovely but….

Has-beans

The darling of daily City life, the coffee, is feeling the strain with Coffee Republic going into administration last week and the administrators from KPMG closing 10 or the 17 company-run stores, though the situation with the franchise stores isn’t clear. Coffee Republic have fallen behind in the coffee arms-race of late and are paying the price for it now but there are promising signs with administrators saying that the chain could be bought out of administration by the end of this week.

I gather even the mighty Starbucks isn’t immune from the downturn in “discretionary spending” as some staff at their head office have been “offered” redeployment to stores as the head office is being slimmed down. Now I’m no employment lawyer but if they make you an offer of a different job and you decline it does that stop being redundancy and make it resignation? Either way it’s not an entirely promising sign for the future of the morning Cappucino, etc but I’m sure the coffee chains won’t go down without a fight

What’s On This Week: July 13th – July 19th 2009

Summer is a time of long lunches in the city, but if all that champagne and ciabatta is a getting a bit much for you, there are plenty of other things to spend your golden hour doing.

St Paul’s Cathedral are hosting the Charleston Symphony Orchestra Gospel Choir on Wednesday lunchtime.  This bona-fide American gospel group in such a spectacular setting promises to be an energetic and rousing spectacle, regardless of your denomination. Eat your heart out Sister Act.

Anything that can survive 1800 years of bombs, buildings and bus drivers must be worth a look in my opinion.  The City’s Roman wall is uncovered with a Museum of Londonguided tour on Thursday, focusing on the remains of the immense wall that surrounded The City in AD200.  Some of the east gate incredibly still rests beneath the Museum, presumably where the whole ‘London Wall’ thing comes from – amazing what you can learn in your lunch hour.

Speaking of which, Gresham College is hosting a lecture on Friday lunchtime about what The City and its overlords must learn from the economic crisis, now that we are tentatively beginning to recover. Professor Michael Mainelli and Bob Giffords of the CSFI will be presenting their thoughts and provoking ours, as they highlight the risks of returning to the perilous pre-crunch ways and suggest some radical (and possibly controversial) options for change.

Extending the lunchtime activities into the weekend, the Barbican are celebrating the release of Harry Potter with an 11am showing on Saturday followed by a family workshop/picnic as part of the Family Film Club series.

Finally, The City is hosting a couple of Big Lunches on Sunday, the products of a heartwarming venture to get us to spread a little joy by building our own little street parties all over Britain.  This Bevin Way party promises BBQs, face-painting and ad-hoc music – it’s more village fete than city slicker, but makes for a refreshing change.

Friday Round-up

Earlier in the week I brought you the police request to identify the man who jumped from the building near Bank and since then the press has been full of the tragic story of Anjool “Jools” Malde who had been asked by Deutsche Bank to leave work early last Friday while they investigated an “IT matter”. The general consensus seems to be that the fear of losing his job may have driven him to it although there are witness statements suggesting that he seemed fine only a couple of hours beforehand., and today the Daily Mail has suggested that the whole situation could have been caused by an internet prank that went wrong. Exactly what could have caused him to take his own life hopefully the coroner will discover.

It seems like the Metropolitan Police have been stung by events where Police officers and PCSOs have asked members of the public to delete photos from their cameras and the Met have responded with an official policy stating that all photography is permitted and that police should be involved if there is enough evidence to suspect a link to terrorist activity:
“Members of the public and the media do not need a permit to film or photograph in public places and police have no power to stop them filming or photographing incidents or police personnel.”

In my coverage of the G20 riots back in May I had no queries from police about my taking photos, even at the times when I was in between police lines, but I know some photographers did. With all my previous photos online (see Flickr gallery to the right) myself and thecity.co.uk owner Rob have been bantering about what kind of photo I’d have to take to get myself arrested but it seems as though the Met have taken that particular form of excitement away now.

Lastly I’d recommend you have a look at Leadenhall Market’s upcoming Jazz Festival, called “Sax in the City”, particularly the evening event on the 30th
July featuring Steve Gregory, former sax player for George Michael (“Careless Whisper” anyone?), Van Morrison and Georgie Fame amongst many others. I played guitar with Steve a few times in different bands over the years and more recently he played at my birthday party while I sang Sinatra numbers, though you’ll no doubt be pleased to know that I won’t be reprising those at the market… they couldn’t afford me

Police Guidance to Photograpers
http://www.met.police.uk/about/photography.htm

Leadenhall Market – Sax in the City
http://www.leadenhallmarket.co.uk

Law and order, City style.

There’s a new sherriff in town. Well, two actually and neither have anything to do with John Wayne (pictured) or carry guns. On Wednesday the traditional election of the Sherriffs took place at the Guildhall with the liverymen of the City’s Livery Companies casting their votes. The results were:

• COOK, Peter Joseph   Votes cast:  1199
• OLIVER, Timothy Patrick Camroux  Votes cast: 689
• WOOTTON, Alderman David Hugh  Votes cast: 1711

Congratulations to the two winning applicants, David and Peter, and they’ll officially take up their posts on Friday 25 September in time to preside at the Election of the Lord Mayor on Tuesday 29 September.

The term Sherriff apparently comes from the Anglo-Saxon word “reeve”, meaning “official” and the “Shire Reeve” was the most important official in his shire (area). By the time of the Norman conquest in 1066 “Shire Reeve” was contracted down to “Sherriff” gave us the title we know today and gave Hollywood the leading character for a thousand Westerns. Originally selected by the King the power to choose them was devolved in the 12th century and they have been elected positions ever since. It is commonly understood that the office of Sheriff of is a pre-requisite to becoming Lord Mayor.

I doubt they’ll take kindly to anyone saying “Get off your horse and drink your milk” so I won’t advise that you try it.

Nomura To Leave Wharf for the City?

Speculation has been rife that Japanese bank, Nomura, is to leave Canary Wharf and move to a prestigious new development in the City of London next year.

The large firm has apparently signed an agreement to take the new Watermark Place development on the north bank of the River Thames. The new 12 storey building is next to Cannon Street station and has replaced the former BT building, Mondial House.

The move would be a boost for the City in its ongoing rivalry with upstart Canary Wharf to be home to leading financial institutions.

Nomura has a London workforce of about 4000, with many of them having been recruited from Lehman Brothers following their collapse last year.

Under Pressure

“Green shoots, no roots”  is one saying going around the office and with the City under prolonged pressure some of the individuals under strain have found the going too hard to bear.

Recently the former CFO of ABN-AMRO went missing with a pair of shotguns the other week having left ABN in March 2008 for personal reasons and was later found dead in woodland near Windsor. While it’s not known what the other circumstances behind his tragic death are there may be some who believe that it was suicide, the same way that former Freddie Mac CFO David Kellerman met his end.

Here in the City there was an incident yesterday where a well-dressed man in a Hugo Boss suit fell from a tall City building and Police are asking for assistance in finding out who he was:

City of London Police is asking for help to identify a man who fell to his death from a building near Bank junction this Sunday, July 5th.

The man wasn’t carrying any form of ID and inquiries since the incident at approx 12.10 yesterday have failed to establish who he was.

He is described as a dark skinned, and may have been Asian or Middle Eastern. He is believed to have been in his late 20′s to early 30′s, and had short black/dark brown hair and was clean-shaven. He was well dressed, in a Hugo Boss suit, white striped shirt, blue Gucci tie, black Gucci belt and wore black slip on shoes.

He had a silver coloured band on the third finger of his right hand and silver coloured oblong cufflinks with a black stone in middle. He had a Gucci key ring with three Yale type keys and one Chubb type key.

Anyone who believes they may have information about his identity is asked to contact Bishopsgate CID on 020 7601 2670 or 020 7601 2606

There’s no indication whether he was a City worker at this point but it has be somewhat likely, given the location of his fall. Hopefully one of you will be able to help.

What’s On This Week: 6th July – 12th July 2009

The City of London Festival draws to a close in real style this week, with over 20 events dotted around the Square Mile.  Fans of classical music will be especially spoilt for choice, as St Margaret Lothbury hosts hotshot young violist Maxim Rysanov on Monday night for some Bach, Prokofiev and Shostakovich.  The latter composer also pops up in St Andrew Holborn on Tuesday evening during what should be a fantastic spectacle – choral works incorporating lights and visual effects and featuring the world premiere of Seven Words, Seven Icons, Seven Cities by composer Nigel Osborne.

Renowned singer Inger Dam-Jensen also appears on Tuesday, performing songs from her Native Scandinavia at the Fishmonger’s Hall in London Bridge.  City workers might also like to check out some of the free lunchtime concerts such as young Scottish troop Bodega rocking out (well, folking out) on Finsbury Circus Gardens on Thursday.

Non-musical offerings from the festival include Poet in the City on Wednesday, promising world-class readings on the subject of realism vs mysticism and Alasdair Nicholson discussing Robert Burns’s environmental conscience at the Barbican on Thursday.  The Barbican is also showcasing the work of Ingmar Bergman throughout the weekend, which should see off any post-heat wave blues, or at the very least provide shelter.  This is Britain after all!

The Museum of London is also taking to the City streets for their ‘Hidden Treasures’ Walk on Friday, promising an educational trip into the secret cultural past of London.  Starting at 2pm it’s a healthy alternative to the long pub lunch and if you’ve spent the week braving out all these church pews and piano stools in the name of cultural enrichment your legs will certainly thank you.

City Police Launch Clickable Map

The City of London Police have proudly announced a new clickable map that shows you the wards of the City, with useful information such as what landmarks are in the particular ward and contact details for local community policing.

Sound good? Well, don’t bother with it if you want real information about policing. The contact details for ward by ward local policing appears to give the same phone number and email address for every ward.

As a policing tool, I’m struggling to see the point. As a clickable tourist information guide to local landmarks, it’s great – but is that really what the police should be producing?  More useful, I think, is the crime map which lets you move around the City and see local crime figures for this year and last year.

It’s all pants!

The summer sales seem to be taking off with Paul Smith and Aquascutum having sales at their stores in the West End but here in the City the Royal Exchange will be seeing the sale at top-notch lingerie retailer Agent Provocateur start today, which should herald the arrival of stylish women and men with partners, lovers or secret habits to support. My favourite shirt-shop Emmett also has a sale on so I’d recommend you taking a trip to their Eldon Street shop in the City to bag a bargain.

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