The Lady Mayor's Show 2025

Saturday 8 November saw the first ever Lady Mayor’s Show.

Dame Susan Langley DBE took office as the 697th Lord Mayor of London in the Silent Ceremony at Guildhall on 7 November and the following day the Procession conveyed her “upriver” to Westminster to swear loyalty to the crown. She is only the third woman to hold the post in over 800 years, and the first ever to be titled the ‘Lady Mayor of London’. The Brewers’ Master, Fergus McMullen, was honoured to watch the procession from the stand at Mansion House.

Until 1856 the procession used to be in barges on the river Thames. Today it takes place by road, leading the Lord Mayor in the state coach to where the City meets Westminster at the Royal Courts of Justice. The Brewers’ Company had its own barge, which we would either lend to or share with other companies as this letter from our scrapbook shows:

At a Court of Assistants at Salters Hall Dec. 15 1767

Resolved unanimously

That the Thanks of this Company be given to the Worshipful Company of Brewers for the use of their Barge on the last Lord Mayors Day and that Daniel Booth Esq. a member of this Court and of the Court of Assistants of the said Worshipful Company of Brewers be desired to signify the same and present the usual compliment of ten guineas to that Court in the name of this Company.

Daniel Booth joined the Brewers’ Company in 1745 and became Master in 1757.

The Brewers’ Company scrapbook is a large leatherbound volume containing 800 pages of bills, menus, letters, notes and memoranda of all kinds, mostly from the 17th to 19th centuries, and it is assumed it was compiled by the Clerk in the late 19th century. Items have featured in previous news stories, and this letter is just one of hundreds of items pasted in.