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T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 8CLASS OF '54 - THE SEARCH IS SUCCESSFULAs described in the previous Old Stationer, a task force of RogerEngledow, Bob Harris and me was set up to search for a newvenue for the reunions of the intake of 1954. We previously heldour annual reunion lunches at The Cheshire Cheese in LittleEssex Street, but it is now due for redevelopment. Ourrequirements were:• A room for our exclusive use• Free choice from a good menu for each person• No room charge, deposit or minimum spend.In this way, we could just book the room and tell our class mateswhen it was and there would be no financial commitment otherthan each person pays his own bill. Previously, the task force hadbeen to a selection of pubs chosen by Roger Engledow, butwithout success. This time we were to visit some pubs chosen byBob Harris.The Artillery ArmsThis is a Fuller’s pub with a traditional character and was ourfirst stop. It is on Bunhill Row opposite London's famousBunhill Fields Burial Ground, now a public garden, near OldStreet Underground Station. The cemetery contains the gravesof many famous people: John Bunyan (died 1688), author of ThePilgrim's Progress; Daniel Defoe (died 1731), author of RobinsonCrusoe; and William Blake (died 1827), artist and poet. TheArtillery Arms had six real ales on tap and a great menu. Theyhad a good room upstairs which would seat about 30 people andwould be suitable for our use. However, the manager was notthere so we could not ask him for a booking. That meant uscoming back on another day to drink more beer and investigatefurther [see later].Just round the corner is the Eglwys Jewin Church, a PresbyterianChurch of Wales. This is the church to which Geraint Pritchardwas a regular visitor when he was in London. Jewin is the oldestWelsh Church in London, formed around 1774. The presentbuilding, at the corner of Fann Street and Viscount Street EC1,was completed in 1960 after the previous building was destroyedduring the Blitz.The Old Doctor Butler’s HeadOur second stop, a Shepherd Neame pub near MoorgateUnderground Station and one of the City of London’s mosthistoric pubs, originally established in 1610. It is named after DrButler who claimed to be a specialist in nervous disorders andwas court physician to King James I. To cure epilepsy, he wouldfire a pistol near his patient to scare the disease from them andhe dropped plague victims into cold water to cure them. He wasalso famous for his medicinal drink “Dr Butler’s Purging Ale”,which became popular in the 17th century and was only availablefrom pubs which displayed Dr Butler's head on their signs -fortunately this ale is not available today.We spoke to the friendly general manager, Mariano, who showedus two upstairs rooms, one of which would have been suitable.However, the killer issue was that he wanted a minimum spendof £800. Time to move on.The Counting HouseAnother Fuller’s pub, The Counting House in Cornhill Street, wasbuilt in 1893 for Prescott’s bank becoming successively taken over/merged with other banks to finally become a branch of theNational Westminster Bank. The building’s foundations sit partlyon the north sleeper wall of an approximately 2,000 year-oldRoman basilica. Firmly embedded in the heart of the City, it is thesite where the money used to be counted for the Stock Exchange(thus, the Counting House). It was in 1998 that Fuller’s opened itas one of their Ale & Pie Houses. The refurbishments were sosensitively done that Fullers were presented with the City HeritageAward that year. It is a superb building, with a glass-domed ceilingand sweeping staircase, where you can enjoy your beer and pies inmagnificent surroundings of times gone by. It has a huge island bar,so you can get served easily.We spoke to the assistant manager, Megan, who offered us oneof their four function rooms. However, she wanted a deposit, aminimum spend and 12.5% service charge. Close to ourrequirements, but not close enough.The Old Bank of EnglandThis building used to be the Law Courts’ branch of the Bank ofEngland and is now another Fuller’s pub. The Bank of Englandtraded on this site for 87 years, until 1975, when the premiseswere sold to a building society. In 1994 it became a Fuller’s pub.The basement still contains the original vaults used to storebullion and some of the Crown Jewels during the First WorldWar. Whilst two safes have now been changed to hold the pub’scellars and kitchens, the main vault is intact and still contains thehuge steel bullion cupboards. It has a truly opulent interior andclaims to be one of the finest pubs in Central London.The site lies between the barbers shop owned by Sweeney Todd,The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, and the pie shop owned by hismistress, Mrs Lovett. The story goes that Todd dispatched hisvictims by pulling a lever as they sat in his barber chair when hisvictims fell backwards down a revolving trap door into thebasement of his shop where he slit their throats with a straightrazor. It was in the tunnels and vaults below the present buildingthat his victims were butchered before being cooked and sold inthe pies to Mrs Lovett’s unsuspecting customers. Please note that,although this Fuller’s pub is one of their Ale & Pie pubs, I amassured that the pies no longer contain Sweeney Todd’s customers.Charlotte, the pub’s functions manager, was very helpful – exceptthat she wanted to charge us £ 90 per hour for the room hire, a12.5% service charge and was fully booked for the day we wantedanyway. Ho hum, better try The Artillery Arms again.The Artillery Arms – AgainWe returned to The Artillery Arms a few weeks later to speak tothe manager, Tony Bennett, and to confirm that he could providewhat we wanted and to sample the beers and food again. Tonyshowed us the upstairs room that we could have to ourselves andwe could see that it would seat about 25 people easily in tables offour that could be pushed together. So the reunion for the classof ‘54 was booked for Tuesday 2nd October.The pub is a Fuller’s pub so it had: ESB, London Pride, Seafarersand Oliver’s Island with a guest ale of Hophead from the DarkStar brewery which Fullers had recently acquired. The menushould fit all tastes, whether you want a snack or main course anddessert, with a good choice for everyone. The prices are OK fora central London pub. Roger and Bob had the Ham Hock withDark Star Ale Pie and I had the Gammon Steak, Duck Egg &Triple Cooked Chips – delicious.Tony Moffat16
T h e O l d S t a t i o n e r - N o 8 8Eating at The Artillery Arms. From left to right: Roger Engledow,Tony Moffat and Bob Harris.Tony Bennett, manager of The Artillery Arms, showing off his ales.The class of 1954 sample their new reunion venueThis was the eleventh reunion for those who joined school in1954 – after our inaugural fiftieth reunion in 2004 we met againin 2009 and have assembled on an annual basis since then.Following a long sequence at the Cheshire Cheese, we met thistime just outside the City of London boundary at The ArtilleryArms in Bunhill Row on Tuesday 2nd October 2018.As always, we soon dispensed with medical updates and movedon to the more important issues of the day: how many wouldSpurs let in against Barcelona, would Arsenal prosper inAzerbaijan, and when would Jose Mourinho be sacked? TonyHemmings was asked to recount his three most egregiousdecisions as a referee and he claimed that he couldn’t rememberany. We suspected that it was his memory at fault rather than hisperfect record with the whistle.Ray Humphreys claimed that his union branch used to meet inthe Artillery Arms when he was a firebrand of the left. Again,we asked him to recount what key decisions were made when hewas there, and he was either too bashful or also couldn’tremember. Andy Wick has finally got a visa to visit Thailand buthe wouldn’t tell us what he was planning to do when he got there.The delight in having a reunion every year is that so often a“newcomer” joins us. This year it was Paul Edwards (who myselfand Bob Harris used to walk to school with every day for 5 years.Why didn’t we get taken by car? Oh yes, that’s it – our parentsdidn’t have one!). Richard Woods also returned for the first timesince 2004.The 18 who attended (in order as per photo below) were, fromleft to right standing: Richard Woods, Tony Hemmings, RogerEngledow, Peter Weeks, Ron Johnson, Martin Brown, Bob Harris,Graham Ling, Mike Weatherley, Roger Melling, Richard Phillippo.Seated left to right – Paul Edwards, Tony Moffat, Alan Williams,Tony McKeer, Ray Humphreys, Andy Wick, Geoff Dawes.17
Page 1 and 2: No 88 / January 2019The Old Station
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Page 25 and 26: Hi Tim,Ross-on-Wye,25th September 2
Page 43 and 44: Ralph 'BEN' batchelorDear PeterStef
Page 45 and 46: Gates Polishing Party” or the “
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