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Barnett Waddingham Cocktail Party 2000
Adrian Waddingham reports on this annual social event.
This year's BW cocktail party continued the tradition of interesting venues, this time testing the guests' conversational skills in the appreciation of the beaux arts, rather than Roman coins, dead man's handles and piranhas (all of which featured in previous years).
The government of the City of London has been based in the Guildhall for at least 795 years longer than Barnett Waddingham have had an office in the City. The Guildhall itself stands out as a magnificent (and respectfully restored) edifice in an area well-stocked with venerable buildings. Part of the Guildhall complex contains the new Guildhall Art Gallery, opened in 1999, which houses various treasures owned by the Corporation of London. These include the giant "Siege of Gibraltar" by John Singleton Copley, which was placed in storage by the Corporation only three weeks before the old gallery (dating from 1886) was destroyed in an air-raid, and which has finally been re-displayed after an adequately-sized wall was erected.
In total, and despite the inclement weather, around 300 clients, BW partners and staff enjoyed the occasion, under the firm gaze of the forbidding Fire Judges - the arbiters of property claims after the Great Fire.
Adrian Waddingham, November 2001.