Comments on: The Dinners Of Old London

By: Elizabeth Greene

Elizabeth Greene — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 15:31:13 +0000

Thank you, gentle author. I have so appreciated your blog, sharing your part of the world during these pandemic times. Perhaps in 2022 I will feel it’s safe enough to travel again to the UK and the continent. Happy Christmas and good health to you!

By: Geri Caruso

Geri Caruso — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 14:36:18 +0000

This is absolutely marvelous…. I can only hope that somewhere in the world there are still that many sets of evening clothes..

By: Jennifer Newbold

Jennifer Newbold — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 14:11:47 +0000

I was privileged to attend a dinner at Drapers’ Hall in October. It was possibly the most extraordinary experience this American will ever have!

By: Lynne Perrella

Lynne Perrella — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 13:05:05 +0000

I love the photos that are “peopled”, and yet the silent dining halls are the ones that have lasting power. Once the linen cloths have been removed, and the empty chairs are lined up in a row — all that remains are the echos of raucous laughter, exultant toasts, whispered poor-taste jokes shared behind hands, workaday confidences, blustery brags, and high-volume speeches.
Oh, those lucky apothecaries!? — They broke the budget, and hired a pianist to liven up the evening. Smart fellows. After a toast or two, I can imagine the tunes requested by the multitudes, and the sing-alongs.

Thanks for the treat, GA. Stay safe all.

By: Helen Breen

Helen Breen — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 12:57:00 +0000

Greetings from Boston,

GA, I enjoyed reviewing those great dining halls of yore. They remind us how powerful those guilds/organizations were representing so many aspect of commerce – Drapers, Ironmongers, Mercers, Skinners, Painters, Apothecaries – not to forget the law courts like Lincoln’s Inn.

We might wonder how many of these palatial spaces have survived?

By: Dave Carter

Dave Carter — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 11:39:04 +0000

Over a (long) 45yr career as a Chef, i worked
in quite a few of the halls & they mostly catered
the same as a century ago.
Many of the remaining halls still have plenty of money
& have secure ‘vaults’ full of priceless solid gold bits
& all sorts of ancient artefacts that never get seen !
(what a waste !).

By: Guillaume

Guillaume — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 01:15:30 +0000

Gawd, man, your prose is evocative! And well-met by the images you select.

I particularly liked “they (victuals) all found their way onto these long tables – such as the one in Middle Temple Hall which is twenty-seven feet long and made of single oak tree donated by Elizabeth I. The trunk was floated down the river from Windsor Great Park and the table was constructed in the hall almost half millennium ago. It has never been moved and through all the intervening centuries – through the Plague and the Fire and the Blitz – it has groaned beneath the weight of the dinners of old London.”

Ah, the magnificence of your island nation’s history! And the role played by commerce- the vitality of London set against Westminster! The place accorded to the trades!

Skinners? Salters? Grocers? Dining in grandeur? Well, certainly, and why not? These fellows of yore knew their collective value, and celebrated accordingly. Think of Pepys the taylor’s son and his very near connection to the first Earl of Sandwich, think of the wonderment of the Merchant Taylor’s Hall, and you get to the kernel of the matter- the skinners, salters, grocers, ironmongers, et al., they made England England

Keep it coming, O Gentle Author! We await!