CITY AND GUILDS COLLEGE ASSOCIATION
112th City & Guilds College Association
Annual Dinner
The 112th City & Guilds College Association Annual Dinner will be held on Friday, 13th February 2026 at Grocers’ Hall.
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We recently heard that Sir John Lazar, President of the Royal Academy of Engineering, who was due to speak will be in Africa when the Dinner is held. However, the Rt. Hon. Dr Greg Clark has agreed to take his place.
Greg served as Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from 2016 to 2019, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government from 2015 to 2016 and Minister for Universities and Science from 2014 to 2015. He previously held ministerial positions in HM Treasury, the Cabinet Office and the Department of Communities and Local Government. During the last Parliament Greg chaired the cross-party Science, Innovation and Technology Select Committee.
Rt. Hon. Dr Greg Clark
VENUE
Grocers’ Hall – A historic venue
Grocers’ Hall
(Copyright of the Worshipful Company of Grocers)
The Worshipful Company of Grocers is one of the ‘Great Twelve’ Livery Companies of the City of London, ranking second in the order of precedence. In 1515, the Court of Aldermen of the City of London settled an order of precedence for the 48 livery companies then in existence.
The Company originated as the ‘Pepperers’, whose existence as a Guild was first officially recorded in the Pipe Roll of 1180, but undoubtedly, the Guild was already active and had been originally formed earlier.
In 1345, Pepperers formed a Fraternity, which was dedicated to St Antonin as their patron saint.
The Fraternity was entrusted with the duty of preventing the adulteration of spices and drugs, as well as with the charge of the King's Beam, which weighed the bulk merchandise in which they dealt.
This Fraternity came to be known in the 1370s as the ‘Grosseurs’ which reflected their expansion into a wide range of mercantile activity, operating primarily ‘in gross’. This was subsequently anglicised to ‘Grocers’.
In 1425, the Grocers acquired the land upon which to build their first Hall, which is where our current Hall resides today.
In 1428, the Grocers were granted their first royal charter, thus formally recognising them as a Mystery or Worshipful Livery Company.
Today, we play a significant role in the City’s constitutional and ceremonial life, including the election of the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs. With the valuable industry and support of our members nationwide, we maintain and develop the fundamental ethos embodied in our early Ordinances, as well as being, in the words of the Company Clerk in 1682, ‘a nursery of charities and a seminary of good citizens'.
For more information on the Grocers’ Company and the Hall, please visit their website at https://grocershall.co.uk/ For directions to get there and other details including disabled facilities see their Visitor Guide at https://grocershall.co.uk/visitor-guide
Please note that we have been informed by Transport for London that works to replace escalators at Bank station will be ongoing on the date of the Dinner. If you need to change from the Northern Line to/from Circle & District line there will be a longer route and this will take more time.
