A splendid Lord Mayor’s Show 2024

The Lord Mayor’s Show is the oldest, longest, best loved and least-rehearsed civic procession in the world. It dates back to the early 13th century when King John, desperate for support, granted that the City of London could appoint its own Mayor.

He required that each newly-elected Mayor should come upriver to distant Westminster and swear loyalty to the crown, and Mayors have been making that journey for more than 800 years. Around them grew up a noisy, colourful, joyous procession that over the centuries became known as the Lord Mayor’s Show.

This year’s show was all the more special to our Company, as the newly elected 696th Lord Mayor, Alderman Alastair King of the Queenhithe Ward, is also a Coachmaker.

The festivities began with a Champagne breakfast at Vintners’ Hall, followed by the procession, a roadside picnic at the halfway point, and ended with a meal in a cosy pub.

Leading the Coachmakers’ entry was the magnificent Millennium Coach, a superb replica road coach made and driven by the Coachmakers’ Renter Warden, Mark Broadbent of Fenix Carriages. Construction took 3,500 man hours over a 15-month period, with everything made on site at Fenix including wheels, springs, ironwork, bodywork and trim. Its immaculately painted finish is in the traditional manner of a road coach, and in all, 18 coats of paint were applied along with 15 books of gold leaf.

Atop the coach were the Master Coachmaker, his consort, Wardens, the Clerk and some of their guests. Following behind were several walking groups made up from the Worshipful Company of Arbitrators, Broderers, Guild of Investment Managers, and Vintners.