Taylorian

Speech Day

Feast of St Barnabas

The Lord Mayor of London visited us to give a talk about the history of the City and financial services. The Alfred Marshall Society also hosted a series of talks. An external speaker gave an exceptionally well attended talk about different jobs in the City. Pupils gave talks on the US dollar’s dominance, common misconceptions surrounding capitalism, cryptocurrency trading and game theory. Returning to the fabric of our School, apart from Art Deco there were other influences upon William Godfrey Newton, the school architect. He designed the whole school according to Masonic principles – the two long corridors resemble Masonic mathematical compasses; there are Masonic marks everywhere you look. The Great Hall is at the centre of it all, so it makes sense that it has the strongest resonance with the mystic ideas of the Masons. That is why the Hall we are in is apparently a replica of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem, which stood for almost four centuries until it was destroyed in the 6th Century BC. The Holy of Holies, where the Ark of the Covenant was kept, would have been in the room under my feet – if you were to go into it, on that room’s walls, you would find that generations of pupils painted the names of the musicals we have performed here. Thus it is fitting to think next about the dramatic and musical performances that have graced this space. Not too long ago, this Hall looked very different, as we performed FAME: The Musical. It was a spectacular production, taking us back to the Eighties. The musical made great demands, requiring a range of performance skills: MD Laryea-Adu became hip hop performer Tyrone Jackson. Dance cameos from Charlie Leigh and Seb Williamson wowed the audience. Whilst those on stage danced with full-hearted abandon, the audience boogied in the aisle. Joseph Wilkins, who has a place to study Lighting Design at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, manned the most dazzling lighting show the Great Hall has ever seen.

The Junior Play was very different in tone, as the boys performed The Lord of the Flies. Setting aside their instinctive gentility and civility, the boys offered us a vision of the heart of darkness in us all. I can attest to the power and authority of the ensemble performance, and was very impressed by Fred Butler, Huseyin Ozer and Charlie Boxall in leading roles. The musical year began with the Music Scholars Concert, welcoming new Scholars Ben Cooper, Dhiren Khemlani, Hugh Suggett and Thomas MacMillan. In the final of the Senior Music Competition, Niels Redman and Ivan Nabarro impressed. The Joint Schools’ Choral Concert involved around 200 pupils from Merchant Taylors’, St Helen’s, St John’s, and Merchant Taylors’ Prep, in a rousing performance of Haydn’s ‘Nelson’ Mass. Then came the Spring Spectacular Concert. A highlight was Adam Valabhji’s confident and expressive solo cello in a Haydn concerto. Looking ahead, many of these singers will tour to Spain and France in July. Music is thriving. And so we reach the concluding thoughts of this speech. I have shared what I hope has been an interesting series of facts about this Hall, but the programme of building has not ceased. The School’s Support Team, led by the Bursar, has been conducting a continuous programme of infrastructure projects over the last ten years, which has included the Great Hall expansion, Design Centre, History, Geography, IT, Dining Hall and Tuck Shop. We have invested nearly £30m in facilities for the pupils. The pace continues: we will shortly finish building a beautiful five-lane indoor cricket centre that will be used by Merchant Taylors’ boys, Middlesex County Cricket Club and the local community. We are also planning improvements to our indoor sports facilities, which will be modernised next summer. Further, there are exciting plans to enlarge and update our Music Department’s facilities. A third Astro will increase our hockey provision

from the summer of 2024. In the spirit of managing climate change and conserving resources, we are also exploring ways to support the environment by installing a reservoir, fed by winter storm water and rainwater harvesting. These are exciting plans for the future. However, even more importantly, we should remember that however fascinating buildings are, it is what we do within their walls that is even more important. I have made the architecture of this Hall my focus today, but we should never forget that it is our actions and experiences that animate these special places. Every day we add to the history of Merchant Taylors’. Every day we enrich our School. The pupils and staff are at the heart of that process – it is a joy to celebrate their successes today. That is what makes this School so special. That is what makes Merchant Taylors’ one of the great schools. Thank you.

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Taylorian 2023