02 March 2020
THE GREAT BUS EXPEDITION
On the 2nd March 2020 the Lord Mayor awarded the efforts of the City's promising apprentices and journeymen in a ceremony at the Mansion House, including a number of young watch and clockmakers. Following the ceremony, the Master (who had hired a vintage bus for the purpose), organised a whistle-stop tour of some of Central London's finest public clocks for the young horologists and their Masters.
THE MASTER'S OMNIBUS ADDRESS
Ladies and Gentlemen, Welcome aboard this fine 1949 London Bus! It is a Leyland PD2, with a Park Royal body. In many ways the purpose of this journey is entirely frivolous, but as Master of the Worshipful Company of Clockmakers of London, the oldest surviving horological institution in the world, I thought that it was important that the young clock and watchmakers, who have come to the City today to receive their awards, should have a complete day to remember, not just a fleeting visit to the Mansion House. I thought that it was important too that they should have the opportunity to meet and mix with leading members of our Company.
Over the centuries, it has been the Company's job to oversee its trade in the City, but it has also been its job to hold all manner of social events at which its members can meet and talk and exchange ideas. I hope that this will encourage the clock and watchmakers of tomorrow to see the value of joining the Company, and will do so in the days ahead. They will be more than welcome. I think it is pretty certain that the Company has never held an event on a bus before, so this is a first, and no doubt you are wondering what it is all about. Well the main purpose is to get us all from Mansion House to the Clockmakers Museum in South Kensington, where Anna, our Curator, who is on the bus with us now, will conduct a tour. On the way though, we will take an absurdly circuitous route, via a selection of the public clocks and horological memorials of London. Some of the clocks are sublime, some extraordinary, some ridiculous.
Keith Scobie-Youngs, one of England's foremost turret clock authorities has kindly agreed to say a few words about each as we pass and it is possible that my husband, the Keeper Emeritus of the Clockmakers' Museum will help out in that respect, from time to time. We are asking a very great deal of our noble bus driver, and it may be that our navigation will go astray from time to time, as unexpected obstacles pop up, which I had not accounted for as I planned the route. I hope that you will forgive me if that happens. In the meantime, as we twist through the streets, sometimes crossing back and forth over our path, and trying not to get too lost, we will endeavour to have a simple on-board Clockmakers' Feast, which I hope very much that you will enjoy. Our driver is Lee Pardoe and our conductor is Jimmy Botton - do get your bus tickets stamped during the journey.
Just before we leave, I thought that it might amuse you if I read you an extract from a newspaper called the Athenian Mercury, published in early 1693. It was written by someone who had walked between Covent Garden to a few hundred yards east of us here. He or she wrote: "I was walking in Covent Garden where the clock struck two. When I came to Somerset-house, by that it wanted a quarter of two. When I came to St Clements, it was half past two, when I came to St Dunstan's it wanted quarter of two, by Mr Knib's Dyal in Fleet-street it was just two. When I came to Ludgate it was half an hour past one, when I came to Bow Church it wanted quarter of two. By the Dyal near Stocks Market it was a quarter past two, and when I came to the Royal Exchange it wanted a quarter of two. This I aver for a Truth, and desire to know - how long I was walking from Covent Garden to the Royal Exchange?" I don't suppose that it is much different now. We shall see. Enjoy your day!
Clocks passed on the Great Bus Expedition, starting at Mansion House:
1. No 1 Poultry
2. St Paul's Cathedral clock
3. The Newgate Street Clock (designed by the Master)
4. The Daily Telegraph Clock, 141 Fleet Street
5. Tompion / Graham memorial, 67 Fleet Street
6. St Dunstan's in the West: clock with jacks.
7. Dane Street, Red Lion Square (John Harrison blue plaque)
8. 119 High Holborn, (Thomas Earnshaw's blue plaque)
9. Swiss Court carillon, Leicester Square.
10. Great Westminster Clock: Parliament Square
11. St Margaret's Westminster: the sundials (worked on by the Master during her apprenticeship)
12. Little Ben: 2 Wilton Road, Westminster.
13. Fortnum & Mason's: automaton clock, 181 Piccadilly 14. Victoria and Albert Museum: the Tompion statue.
15. The Science Museum, Exhibition Road: the Clockmakers' Museum
The bus driver was sadly defeated by:
Watchmaker Court, 33 St John's Lane, Clerkenwell (clock makers' memorial plaques)
Neal's Yard water clock.
The Seven Dials.
Liberty's automaton clock
Selfridges clock : 400 Oxford Street.
The Master thanks Keith Scobie Youngs for his highly entertaining commentary, which included a graphic description of his heart-stopping slide down the pitched roof of St Andrew's Holborn, when he was (until then) a carefree apprentice. The Master is extremely grateful to Liveryman Robert Lamb and Past Master Sir George White for spending an "entertaining and highly organised morning" packing up the picnics for the bus trip. We also thank the provider of the specially brewed beer from Bristol called "Free Time"