Sat at my desk, working away and as I look up I see a stunning sight. A sight that had me literally throwing off my reading glasses and running across the room with camera to catch it before it vanished.

Amazingly, it actually lasted a good couple of minutes and got stronger in intensity as time went on.

I’ll let the photos tell the rest – you may make your own inferences about the City, Banks and Pots of Gold.

Click on photos for larger versions

Notice the double reversed rainbow here – known as Alexander’s Band

Incredibly, about an hour later a second rainbow appeared – this time with both an Alexander Band and a strong reflection in the River Thames

Sunday mornings are a good time to take a wander round a nearly deserted City of London. However, had you tried that yesterday, your contemplative meanderings would have been interrupted by a marching band and some 200 longbow archers parading though the city.

The March of the Archers was a seemingly one-off event which brought in archers from various countries to meet up with their London counterparts and do a bit of archery practice in the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company.

After a short muter within the grounds of the Guildhall, they marched round the empty streets to the HAC, while early builders or office security guards peered out of their buildings with a look of mild bemusement on their faces.

The march was organised by the Fraternity of Saint George, which is celebrating its 500th anniversary (if you ignore the long period when it didn’t really operate). Apart from the fact that the march occurred, I can’t really say all that much about the event, save to comment that it still feels surreal to see old marching bands and pageants in the modern city streets.

A spent most of the time running around taking photos of the marchers – and the collection of photos is over at my usual Flickr account.

A new board game has been launched which looks like a variant of Trivial Pursuit – but with a distinctly London theme. The “City of London board game” is also a fund raiser for the Lord Mayor’s annual charity.

The idea seems to be that the players vicariously roam around the City answering multiple choice questions to proceed with the aim of getting to the Mansion House and claim the prize of being the Lord Mayor. In real life, a poisoned chalice of sorts as the Lord Mayor has to pay for some of the annual entertainments out of his own pocket, so I’d guess the winner of the board game should pay for the next round of drinks in the pub?

Looking at the picture of the board game though, I am rather disappointed that the playing pieces are just lumps of plastic – I was expecting a “Monopoly style” collection of London themed playing pieces, such as the Lord Mayor’s coach, a cat, a miniature Monument etc.

The game is £30, or you can collect a copy in person from Mansion House and save on the P&P. Or from August the game will be available in John Lewis and Peter Jones London stores (but not Hamleys?).

The box also proudly exclaims that it is the “official boardgame”, which makes me wonder if there is an unofficial board game out there, and if they are about to be prosecuted under one of those quaint 800 year traditions that I tend to enjoy writing about.

More details to order a box for yourself here.

Now that the Lord Mayor has launched a board game, will the Mayor of London do the same? Maybe the playing pieces can be tiny blonde wigs.

Another old City of London tradition occurred today as the Company of Vintners carried out their ancient procession to a local church following the inauguration of a new Master. The procession’s path is swept clean by a Wine Porter using a birch broom, while the Master and Wardens wear furred gowns, Tudor caps and carry posies.

The posies and the brooms are inherited from the medieval practice of this ceremony. The posies sweetened the foul smelling air of medieval London and the brooms were necessary to clear the filth that covered the medieval streets.

The procession is fairly short, from the Livery Hall, over the road and down a side street to the Church for a service. As the time approached, the police arrived and stopped the traffic (memo to other Livery companies doing processions – get the police involved!) so that they could pass over without being held up by indifferent motorists. As expected, the Wine Porter lead the way sweeping the street clear.

A small throng of photographers, your correspondent included darted hither and thither to get suitable shots and as we turned into the cobbled side street, there was quite a crowd waiting by the church.

The Company went in for their annual service and a few posed for us photographers. A tour guide had cleverly turned up with a gaggle of tourists to watch and was heard to loudly exclaim about the event, to some amusement from the rest of us.

They repeat the process going back to the hall after the Church service, but I didn’t hang around for that.

The Company itself can trace its heritage back at least as far as 1363, when its first formal charter was signed – although anecdotal evidence suggests that predecessors existed as far back as the Norman Conquest. The wine trade was of immense importance to the medieval economy – between 1446 and 1448, wine made up nearly one-third of England’s entire import trade. Since their first charter in 1363, it was the Vintners who presided over this trade. The Company lost a lot of its power and wealth though during the civil war period and later the Victorians curtailed its monopolies as they did with the other guilds. Today it is largely a charity and educational organisation, although it still has some powers to grant liquor trading licenses without needing a local Magistrate.

Within the rankings of the Twelve Great Livery Companies of the City, The Vintners’ Company was placed eleventh in the order of precedence of 1515.

Like most of the City’s Livery Companies, the Vintners have their own Hall, and although the building is not the original, it has been on the same spot ever since 1446 – making it one of the longer continuous occupants of land within the City. The Hall itself was burnt down in the Great Fire of London. Rebuilding began almost immediately and the Court held its first meeting in the new building in 1671.

In 1822 Upper Thames Street was widened. The Hall lost some of its rooms, and was given a new facade and entrance gates. The present facade and entrance date from 1910.

The Vintners are also important participants in the annual Swan Upping that will be carried out along the Thames in a couple of weeks time.

More photos as usual over on my Flickr account.

Fancy acting like a Freeman of the City of London and drive some sheep over London Bridge? Well, you can as it happens as London Bridge’s 800th Anniversary celebrations will include a sheep driving event – and even “ordinary” folk can apply to join in.

As the festival is part of the Lord Mayor’s Appeal – a charity – they are naturally expecting people to pay for the privilege. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound cheap – being a traditional groat, which is the old name for four silver pennies. Four ordinary pennies I could afford, but silver ones sound a bit out of my budget.

Apart from the sheep driving, the whole bridge will be pedestrianised for the day, and a whole range of livery guilds will be there displaying their wares. If it is similar (and it sounds like it) to the street market held last year in Cheapside, then it should be a good bit of fun to wander along to watch the festivities.

Sheep drives will happen at 10:30am, 1pm and 2:30pm on Saturday 11th July.

Frustratingly, according to Diamond Geezer’s chart, the Jubilee Line to London Bridge, won’t be working that weekend.

The Lord Mayor’s Appeal has a range of other events occurring this year, and while some of them do appeal to my tastes, they tend to scare my somewhat depleted wallet. Which is a shame.

Somewhat cheaper though is a rather nice idea – a collection of Trump Cards featuring “London’s Greatest Buildings”, and five packs will contain, Willy Wonka style, Golden Tickets to enjoy tea at Mansion House.

Slightly more bizarrely though, they are also offering jars of Mansion House Kumquat Preserve, stirred by the Lord Mayor himself. Being of a mischievous bent, I had evil thoughts to persuade a major supermarket to buy a few thousand jars. The Rumpelstiltskin-esque vision of the Lord Mayor having to stir every jar brings a smile to my perverted mind.

As a final comment, the story that you had to be a Freeman of the City to drive sheep across London Bridge is not entirely true. Like most stories though, it has a kernel of truth.

As it happened, anyone was able to drive sheep, or any animal (excepting fire breathing dragons) across London Bridge. However, London Bridge was a toll bridge and you had to pay a fee to take your animals across – unless you were a Freeman, in which case it was, self-evidently, free.

This made a big difference, as a Freeman would be able to sell his (or occasionally, her) cattle at the same price, but as they hadn’t paid the bridge toll, their profit margin would be higher. The commercial benefit was also one of the reasons why a person granted a Freedom had to pay a sizeable fine to the City Commissioners for the title.

Over time, the story built up that only Freemen could drive sheep over the Bridge – mainly as they were probably the only people to bother.

The tolls raised by that early London Bridge are still in use – as part of the Bridge House Trust, which to this very day continues to fund the maintenance of the Bridges across the river within the City boundries at no cost to the taxpayer.