Inspiring Connections

The Livery Advocates Pilot, which successfully launched last spring, brought members of livery companies together with young people who could benefit from their advocacy. The pilot programme was delivered by Catch22, and members from The Goldsmiths’ Company, The Skinners’ Company, The Haberdashers’ Company and The Clothworkers’ Company participated. The programme has now evolved into Catch22’s ‘Inspiring Connections’ and is set to expand beyond the original four livery companies. We hope you’ll take this opportunity to get involved!

Get Involved Today:

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NHS Livery Kitchens Initiative

The NHS Livery Kitchen Initiative has raised more than £200,000 to date – including a £20,000 donation from Clothworkers.

It is a truly collaborative project from the City of London livery community, and beyond, to show support for the NHS during the coronavirus crisis. More than 17,000 meals have been delivered to Barts Health NHS Trust hospitals – including St Bartholomew’s Hospital, the Royal London Hospital and Newham University Hospital – since the project launched in April. These hospitals, in East London, are in some of the hardest-hit areas of London. The hospital staff have had an unimaginable physical, mental and emotional burden to bear.

Four ‘inactive’ kitchens at Grocers’ Hall, Drapers’ Hall, Merchant Taylors’ Hall and Party Ingredients have been put to use to produce more than 600 nutritious meals a day.

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50 Fenchurch Street

City of London Approves Planning Applications for New Development

We were delighted to share our ambitious proposal with members last autumn. Today, we can announce that the City of London has given us the green light on this project. See the City's press release here.

Resolution to grant planning consent was achieved for the project at the City of London’s first virtual public Planning and Transportation Committee, with 29 voting in favour and one abstention.  The City of London’s ability to ensure planning processes continue transparently is applauded, given its importance in ensuring London’s pre-eminence as a world financial centre. So many of our staff, members, and professional advisers have been involved in this achievement - we are indebted to all of you for your support!

The scheme designed by Eric Parry Architects includes a new office building, replacement Livery Hall for The Clothworkers’ Company, public roof garden and winter garden and a significant new public realm situated around a restored Grade I church tower.  The scheme pioneers extensive urban greening in the City of London. 50 Fenchurch Street is at the forefront of the City of London’s drive for improved urban greening and enhanced public realm. The development will provide over 3,400 sq m of new public space, with a generous new public realm of approximately 1,500 sq m area at ground level.  At Level 10 there is a 360-degree public viewing experience, allowing visitors to arrive at a large terrace with spectacular vistas over London. Level 10 also provides a double-height winter garden, which the public can access throughout the year. 50 Fenchurch Street will be the first building of this scale to incorporate extensive vertical landscaping in the City of London.

The proposed scheme will improve two listed buildings. The Grade I listed Tower of All Hallows Staining will be set within a new street level public realm. The Grade II Lambe’s Chapel Crypt will become publicly accessible.  

The new office building will provide 78,000 sq m of office accommodation (GIA) over 35 storeys. The innovative external design significantly enhances the environmental performance of the façade. The façade includes bespoke ceramic cladding at ground, a seamless glazed podium level and a crafted glass detail on the upper levels. This when combined with the vertical landscaping creates a unique building for the City skyline.  

Irrespective of Covid-19 the City office development pipeline is very constrained post 2020.  This coincides with an upcoming peak in major lease events between 2023-2027, particularly in the legal sector. 50 Fenchurch Street is set to benefit from this future supply / demand imbalance. A new Clothworkers’ Hall will be located largely beneath the new proposed public realm. This will be the seventh Livery Hall for The Clothworkers’ Company, which has called the site home for nearly 500 years.

Eric Parry, Founder and Principal of Eric Parry Architects has commented: “The commission to redevelop a site of this scale and significance is special in any city but in the historic heart of the City of London it presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity. The design journey of this urban proposition has been one of the most remarkable alignments between commerce, culture and the public realm that I have experienced. The proposal will unite more than 800 years of the City of London’s history with its future in a development that will dramatically improve the experience of the city for all.”

Clerk to The Clothworkers’ Company, Jocelyn Stuart-Grumbar, has said: “We are excited about this bold proposal – which provides office accommodation that is especially suited to flexible working environments – and about the evolution of Clothworkers’ Hall. The project is part of our long-term strategy for investing in the future of The Clothworkers’ Company, as well as The Clothworkers’ Foundation, here in the City of London. This scheme offers us the opportunity to unlock our assets, increasing our charitable impact during a period in which this will be so essential.”

What's Next?
There are now various legal agreements to enter into with the City, and these can take several months to finalise. At the same time The Company will plan the strategy to market our site and enter into discussions with potential development partners. Although the economic conditions have been affected by the current Covid-19 pandemic, our project is a unique one, and we are hopeful that it will continue to attract interest. The advantage The Company has, however, is that it has very long-term time horizon, and if we feel that any offer made is not currently acceptable, we are able to wait for a period when conditions become more favourable.

The new Clothworkers’ Hall will be designed with our future needs in mind – including the responsible management of our historic assets, together with the comfort and wellbeing of our staff, members and guests. It is important to all of us that we take the time necessary to plan properly for our seventh hall on this historic site, and we look forward to sharing those plans with you – as they develop – in the months to come.

The slideshow below, which we shared with members last autumn, has been updated to explain the project.

Use the backward / forward arrows ( "<" or ">" ) in the bottom-left corner of the slideshow to navigate through the presentation.

FAQs

Where are we in the process?

• In November 2019, we communicated our plans to members and key stakeholders in the community, and held a public exhibition in (20-21 November 2019).
• We submitted our planning applications at the end of the year (2019).
• As of 14 May 2020, the City of London Planning and Transportation Committee approved our planning applications.

When will all of this happen?

• We are still in the early stages of the process, having just received planning permission, the plans for the commercial tower and livery hall are likely to evolve in the coming months as we explore our options to bring these plans to fruition.
• A development is not certain and, if it were to proceed, work on site could not begin before 2022.
• There would be an estimated 10 months of demolition (including archaeological and conservation activities).
• If a development proceeds, it is estimated that the building of a commercial tower and new Livery Hall would take an additional four years.

What will we do whilst the new Livery Hall is in development?  

• We are currently carefully considering all our options for continuing The Company’s and The Foundation’s ongoing operations, providing for staff and continuing to run events, etc.
• Our firm commitment is to continue offering members a programme of events (as close as possible to our normal programme), but in an alternative venue whilst we demolish and rebuild our own Livery Hall.
• However, we cannot make any concrete plans until we are certain the project can move forward successfully.
• We will use the e-newsletter and the Clothworker Magazine to communicate our plans, as they evolve and become finalized, throughout the process.

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Your Votes Are In!

2020 Recipients of the Clothworkers' Charity Fund

Each year, we encourage all Clothworkers to donate, within their means, to the Clothworkers' Charity Fund (formerly the 'Livery Fund', a sub-fund of The Clothworkers' Foundation). The Company not only matches all donations, but also allows you, as a donor, to decide where the grants are allocated by nominating and then voting for shortlisted charities—making the Clothworkers' Charity Fund (CCF) an effective and rewarding way to directly support causes important to you.

The votes are in for 2020. This year, grants of £43,000 each will be awarded to NAPAC, Stop the Traffik and Trailblazers Mentoring.

NAPAC

The vision of the National Association for People Abused in Childhood (NAPAC) is that of a society where every adult survivor of childhood abuse – including physical, sexual, emotional abuse or neglect – can access the support they need, when they need it, to make a journey of recovery and heal their emotional and psychological wounds. NAPAC runs a confidential support telephone line and email service, facilitated psycho-educational support groups, and a training programme for organisations and individuals that work with survivors. The charity also works with academics and policymakers to promote learning and research into the issues faced by adult survivors of childhood abuse.

Clothworkers’ Charity Fund Grant: NAPAC is experiencing consistently increasing demand for its support services and is at a critical point where it needs to increase capacity with new roles. Increasing the capacity of NAPAC’s survivor support services will enable NAPAC to fulfil its strategic aim of increasing the number of calls it takes, make the email service more accessible and valuable, and enhance the robustness of its survivor support team to reflect the increasing demand. This is of direct benefit to survivors as thousands more will be able to access pivotal emotional support. Three new part-time roles will be created. Two will be Call and Email Handlers, and one will be at the more senior supervisory Survivor Support Facilitator role, which will be focused on direct supervision and debriefing with the call and email handlers who are on shift. The roles will be based at NAPAC’s Stockport office. This additional capacity will mean NAPAC can reach and sustain the target of answering 12,000 calls from survivors each year (compared with the current 9,000 per annum).   

Click here for more details on NAPAC.

Stop the Traffik

STOP THE TRAFFIK (STT) aims to create a world where people are not bought or sold. Through collaboration with partners, STT is building a global picture of human trafficking. This global picture shows hotspots and trends of trafficking, and allows STT to extract meaningful insights that are then used to prevent people being trafficked in communities around the world.It works to unite people around the world by inspiring, informing, equipping and mobilising communities to know what human trafficking is, know how to identify it, and know how to respond appropriately when they saw it. It does this through innovative research and intelligence, community co-ordination, and running awareness campaigns to empower individuals, organisations and agencies to make more informed and better choices, to signpost them to safe places for accessing help and support, and to encourage appropriate response and reporting.

Clothworkers’ Charity Fund Grant: In March 2019, STT, in collaboration with Greater Manchester Combined Authority, conducted a survey on the experiences of modern slavery and exploitation with 180 people who were either rough sleeping or homeless across Manchester. A key finding was that, although many homeless people are being targeted for exploitation, there is a lack of awareness and a need for initiatives to tackle the issue. However, the survey was not conducted on a large enough scale to be truly representative of Manchester. A grant would be used to research homeless vulnerability to exploitation, deliver four training sessions, and run two awareness and action campaigns with social media to provide a more accurate picture of the situation. This would enable STT, in collaboration with local partners and homeless people, to design and develop targeted and appropriate initiatives, and to build the capacity of local organisations and agencies to support vulnerable people in their communities. STT will deliver campaigns, activities and interventions to reduce the vulnerability of homeless people in Manchester to human trafficking and exploitation. This will be achieved by engaging those at risk: equipping homeless people and organisations that support them with information to avoid exploitative situations; signposting to local support services; and working collaboratively to create sustainable solutions.
 
Click here for more details on Stop the Traffik.

Trailblazers Mentoring

Operating from four prisons (Brinsford, Wandsworth, Aylesbury and ISIS), Trailblazers aims to end youth re-offending for good through mentoring, encouraging around 150 young male offenders to make a positive change and providing them with the tools, support and opportunities they need to continue on their new paths upon their release. Mentees sometimes spend up to 23 hours a day in their cells, and the only people they talk to are fellow inmates or prison officers. Mentoring allows them to speak to ‘an outsider’. Someone who doesn’t tell them what to do or judge them for the things they may have done, but someone who can help them see a different path and offer the guidance they need to create a better future. The offenders are seen by a trained professional once a week beginning six months before release, and continuing for six months after release. The national reoffend rate is 56 per cent; for mentees of Trailblazers, the reoffend rate is only 18 per cent. The cost of providing the service is around £2,150 per annum per mentee. The cost of a year in prison to the taxpayer is £59,000. Each prison project is led by an on-site Project Manager who has day-to-day responsibility for recruiting and training mentors, engaging mentees, meeting targets and data management.
 
Clothworkers’ Charity Fund Grant: Each prison project is led by an on-site Project Manager, who has day-to-day responsibility for recruiting and training mentors, engaging mentees, meeting targets and data management. Trailblazers wants to extend the variety and sustainability of its education, training and employment support. In order to provide a greater and more consistent level of support post release, the charity intends to recruit Community Caseworkers who will pilot a project to work directly with mentees at three of the prisons, augmenting the pastoral support provided by the mentors.

Click here for more details on Trailblazers.

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Clothworkers' Hall - Response to COVID-19 Pandemic

MESSAGE FROM THE MASTER, SIR JONATHAN PORTAL BT
19 March 2020

Dear All,

You may have been contacted this week to announce the postponement or cancellation of events at Clothworkers’ Hall, scheduled for the coming weeks, as a result of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. We will continue to update members and guests regarding future events on a case-by-case basis as the situation in London – and the UK – continues to develop.

You also need to know that office staff for both The Company and The Foundation are now working remotely until further notice. This means that the Hall is effectively closed, with the exception of necessary maintenance and security services. The best way to reach The Company is to email us at enquiries@clothworkers.co.uk; your message will be forwarded to the appropriate staff member(s).

I am glad to be able to assure you that the ‘business’ of The Company, including the committees that govern our operations, continues apace, with discussions and meetings being conducted remotely.

I am writing so that all Clothworkers and our wonderful staff receive the same clear message. We are not taking these decisions lightly. We have been working hard to make responsible and strategic choices in reacting to the present situation and planning for the future.

On Monday, our government announced new measures to slow down the spread of the virus. The Prime Minister asked the nation to ‘avoid all non-essential contact with other people’ – specifically to avoid mass gatherings and work from home where possible. This has changed the landscape, especially when it is clear the government’s major concern is London itself and the ability of the NHS to cope with the numbers of critically ill patients. We want to assure you that we will continue to monitor government advice – and recommendations from the World Health Organisation, Public Health England and the National Health Service – to ensure we are doing whatever is necessary for the health and wellbeing of our community during this difficult and unprecedented time.

The Clothworkers’ Company and The Clothworkers’ Foundation are wonderful organisations, and the much needed and valued philanthropic work we fund – and do – continues even as the events and member-orientated activities are put on hold. For example, as an immediate response to the current crisis, The Company has already made a donation of £15k to The Trussell Trust, a charity that supports a nationwide network of food banks in providing emergency food and support to those in need. The Foundation is currently liaising with other major grant-making organisations to determine how it might best assist in a wider effort to meet need during this time, and a decision will be taken by trustees over coming days.
 
I am proud to be the Master of The Clothworkers’ Company, with its resilient and resourceful team, during these uncertain times. I very much hope to be writing to you soon to say that we have been encouraged to re-open for business, and look forward to welcoming you back to Clothworkers’ Hall in the future.

Until then, I hope and pray you stay calm, safe and well. We recommend that everyone monitors advice from the NHS website: www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

At the same time, I encourage all of us to emulate The Clothworkers’ philanthropic spirit and think what we can do to help the elderly, vulnerable and sick near us, while taking the necessary precautions for personal health and safety. We would love to hear your stories: please keep in touch with us by emailing our Membership and Communications Manager, Renée LaDue (reneeladue@clothworkers.co.uk), or connecting with us on social media – you can find us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

Posted on behalf of
Sir Jonathan Portal Bt
Master, The Clothworkers' Company

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