The 676th Lord Mayor Robert Finch was eased and cheered into office on November 8 in customary fashion, with the longest procession on record for a Lord Mayor's Show.
The purpose of the event is to parade the new incumbent before the citizens of London, for their approval, before taking the oath of allegiance at the Law Courts.
For the second year in succession, the Worshipful Company of Fruiterers' entered two floats in the procession to demonstrate its support of The Lord Mayor and The City of London. The parade was three-miles long and had more than 6,000 participants.
The Fruiterers' entries were very much in harmony with the new Lord Mayor's theme that is the ëCity in Tune'. A horse drawn brewers' dray, pulled by sister shires Maggie and Minnie, loaned by Farming World, carried a cameo depicting the Garden of Eden, complete with Adam, Eve, The Tree of Knowledge and a snake entwining a living apple tree.
This is the image that is depicted in the Company's coat-of-arms, but it was fun to have it played out in real life. Georgina Johnson, the niece of past master Redsell, drove the dray with consummate ease, and was clothed in traditional driving habit.
The floats were identified by signage and the skillful and attractive fruit decorations prepared by Jenny Bartlett, Celia Mallon and Jane Lockwood. Float two was a farm trailer, appropriately dressed and pulled by a 51-year-old vintage tractor and containing a four-piece steel band, ëHugo & the Hugonaughts'.
Accompanying the floats, on foot, were the master, Peter Halliday, attended by his wardens Henry Bryant and Peter Bartlett, the learned clerk, Lionel French and the Company's Beadle Bob Charlton.
Several liverymen, partners and children walked and busied themselves handing out fresh fruit to the thousands of spectators along the route. Three ladies of the Liver, were dressed as Carmen Miranda, and charmed not only the crowds that thronged the City thoroughfares but also the Fruiterers themselves.
Another charmer was Nel Gwynne ñ aka Georgina Young ñ who was dressed in the appropriate period costume and dispensed oranges to enchanted observers. Adding much fun to the occasion were the two bananamen whose antics along the route kept young and old in stitches.
The Fruiterers owe much to those organisations that assisted in supplying manpower, entertainment, fruit and financial support by way of sponsorship. These included:
• The Banana Promotion Group, which sponsored the steel band and bananamen as well as supplying four stems of bananas, specially shipped from the West Indies.
• Coregeo, (Pink Lady), for sponsoring the Carmen Mirandas
• Vitacress for the fruit that was dispensed
• The National Fruit Show
• Liveryman George Bray, for the actors playing Adam, Eve and Nell Gwynne, plus sponsorship of the photography
• Honorary assistant John Olney, for decoration and logistical assistance
• Farming World and the Johnsons, for the horses, dray and participation
• Liveryman Will Sibley, for tree, tractor and trailer
• and last, but by no means least Hayley Bray, the professional photographer whose excellent pictures appear on this page and who seemed to walk twice the distance of other participants.
The Fruiterers have no plans to enter the Lord Mayor's Show again until 2006, the year that the Company celebrates the 400th anniversary of the granting of its Royal Charter. Ideas are already in the planning stage for a much more ambitious entry, reflecting the occasion.
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