City of London Board Game Launched for Charity

A new board game called “City of London” has been launched in aid of Lord Mayor’s Appeal Charities. In it, your aim is to become the Lord Mayor of London, and to do that you secure ward seats, win elections, become a Freeman and more before getting to the top job at the Mansion House.

Multiple choice questions about the Square Mile need to be answered in order to progress through the game, with the 25 wards, the Old Bailey and the Guildhall all featuring on the attractive board.

The Lord Mayor’s two charities that will benefit from the sale of the game are St John Ambulance London (Prince of Wales’s) District and The Lord’s Taverners.

Designed for 2-4 players aged 10 and above, ‘City of London’ is available at the special price of £25.00 if ordered in advance via www.lordmayorshow.org and collected from The Mansion House, or at the retail price of £29.99, post free. It’s also available from Guildhall’s Library and Art Gallery shops, St Paul’s Cathedral shop and, from August, at John Lewis and Peter Jones in London.

Ian Pay, The Lord Mayor’s Appeal Director says, ‘We think that ‘City of London’ is the perfect gift for anyone interested in the City of London or who professes to be an expert on the ‘Square Mile’. It’s also a great way of supporting two hugely worthwhile charities, discovering facts about the City and having fun at the same time.’

City school abuse scandal

It seems like there may have been the wrong kind of sex in the City as the papers have been humming with the news that the City of London School for Girls has been rocked by the allegations of an inappropriate relationship between a 26-year old teacher and an under-16 year old pupil. The woman was apparently arrested on Monday and has been suspended pending further investigations although that point seems somewhat procedural as the school heads into the summer holidays.

Today’s Daily Mail has named the teacher concerned:
“Helen Goddard, 26, a trumpeter known as ‘the jazz lady’ by her pupils at the £13,000-a-year City of London School for Girls, was arrested on Monday and released on police bail”

Whilst the investigation is yet to determine exactly what went on I’m sure the school will be hoping that it’s robust response to the allegations will allay the fears of parents and also demonstrate to the various City institutions that support it that they have handled the situations well.

The school has 700 pupils aged from 7 to 18 and has been on its Barbican site since 1969 and is a very highly-rated school indeed which has top-rated examination performances and has had agony aunt Claire Rayner, TV presenter Claudia Winkleman and singer and musician Dido as pupils in the past.

There’s some confusion over exactly when the school started as their own website has the confusing sentence:
“Founded by a City merchant, William Ward in 1881 City of London School for Girls opened in Carmelite Street in 1894”

Eh? The Time quotes the 1881 date but the school seems to consider its birth year as being 1894 though as they recently celebrated their 110th birthday in 2004-2005.

City of London School for Girls
http://www.clsg.org.uk/

Stunt Rider Jumps Tower Bridge

Renowned stunt rider, Robbie Maddison, achieved a first last week when he performed a spectacular backward flip across a partially closed Tower Bridge. The Australian FMX legend got an upside down view of the iconic bridge and the Thames below as he made the jump across. See for yourself in this video below:

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

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.

« Previous Page