My City Offices 1967 - 2006

I first arrived in the City when I began working at Thomas Miller in October 1967, and remained there until May 2006 when I retired. Until 1980 when we moved, my offices were at Baltic Exchange Chambers, 14-20 St Mary Axe, in the insurance sector close to Lloyd's and overlooked by the new Commercial Union (later Aviva) Building. 

Baltic Exchange Chambers, 14-20 st Mary Axe

In 1980 we didn't move far - two streets back to International House off Creechurch Lane. to a larger and more modern building that had been the headquarters of International Stores. Our old office building was pulled down with the Baltic Exchange after the IRA bombed it in 1991 (they mistook it for the Stock Exchange) and the Gherkin was built on the site. 

International House between the Sir John Cass Primary School and the Gherkin (30 St Mary Axe)

We remained at International House until just after I retired when Thomas Miller moved to 90 Fenchurch St. 

 

90 Fenchurch St

Our offices were never lavish but in the early days we did have individual offices. We didn't move to 'open plan' until 1986.

Herry in Bury St / Baltic Exchange Chambers 1979

 

Delores, one of the filing girls, outside my office in International House post 1982

What is striking about the two photos above is the absence of files in the earlier one. This is because we had a huge central filing system. My office in the first 1979 photo was much larger than in the second (when we had moved to International House) and could have easily accommodated some filing racks. 

More important, you would have seen my long-time secretary Jo Johns, as she sat at her desk outside my door. Note that by this date (1982), we had acquired filing racks in our offices. 

Jo Johns, my secretary for over 20 years, in 1982,

Later, we became both open-plan and later 'paperless' (passing through an unsatisfactory 'microfiche' stage as well). My final resting place when I retired in May 2006 looked like this. 

Herry at his desk in the 'Blue Lagoon' on his retirement. Note the bowl of fruit. 

Some photos of us in the intervening years:

My immediate colleagues in 1975 - Syndicate 1

Left to right back: Jules Taylor, Luke Readman, Peter Glover, Tony Whitworth. 
Front: Fred Efford, Herry
Photo by Herry's secretary, Marilyn Griggs
1975

 

Syndicate 1 in 1983. Back: Herry, Tony Whitworth, Mark Galloway, Nick Parkin

Front: Graham Daines, Nigel Carden, Nick Williams.

In 1984 I left the syndicates and moved to Creechurch House across the road in Bevis Marks. It's address was still Creechurch Lane. 

Creechurch House

 

My secretary, Jo Johns, at my desk in Creechurch House 1986

Herry at his desk in Creechurch House c.1986

In 190 our new insurance business, TIM, merged with another older City business and we moved to lager offices in America House, America Square. 

In 1992 we moved back to International House and remained there until my retirement in 2006.
  

                                                         ITIC at America House 1991.
Standing: Sidney, Derek, Steve Harvey, Ed Ross, Paul Smith, Stuart Munro, Julie Mavropoulos, Tony Payne, Sid Lock, Jo Johns. Kneeling: Herry, Maggie Moore

P&I colleagues in 2004: Hugo Wynn-Williams, Charles Fenton, Brian Sheppard, Stephen James, Herry, John McPhail, Karl Lumbers, Nigel Carden, Graham Daines, Luke Readman, Chao Wu

Finale: the class of 1967, taken 37 years after in 2004

The 'Class of 1967' - Herry, Stephen James, Roger Day and Francis Frost. We joined Thomas Miller together and this photos was taken in September 2004, 37 years later. Roger Day (who had been a master with Shell) went to Canada where he set up Shipowners Assurance Management which he ran until his death. 

Old Swan House Garden in Winter Jobs 2020 / 2021

 This post is about doing stuff in the garden, rather than showing the finished job. 

The grass garden with most of the grasses taken down. Only the stipa plumes still to be done. The Pheasant grass isn't cut down. 

The main winter jobs are of course the clearing of leaves and small branches from the beds and lawns, pruning the fruit trees, pruning and pinning up the roses, taking down the wildflowers and cutting down or cutting back all perennial plants - with a few exceptions. 

Stipa gigantia with about 40% of the plumes cut back. 

The most amount of work among the perennials are the grasses, which are taken down in February or March. The most time-consuming are Stipa Gigantea which have around 100 long plumes that must be cut down individually into their still green base. The green base is then 'combed through' to drag out any dead grasses. 

Pheasant grass is almost as time-consuming, as it's not cut down but the dead fronds must be cut out individually. 

Pheasant grass (Anamanthele lessoniana stipa)

The most skilfull job is the pinning up of the rambling roses on the flint wall and on the plum tree. Katya does to this in a day, and the result is a beautiful tracery

                  Katya working on Mme Alfred Carriere

The delicate tracery of rose stems on the eastern wall 

The other major job for which I have help is taking down the wildflower area. This actually happens in two stages, with Bruce cutting them down in the autumn and leaving the cuttings to drop theirs seeds.
Then in March, the area can be cleared to bare earth and fresh plug plants planted in the gaps   

Bruce using a brushcutter to finally clear the wildflower area 

The squares round the fruit trees being weeded and grape hyacinths resown

The fruit tree squares weeded and the fruit trees pruned by Bruce

Finally, some edging 

Favourite Writing - Brazilian Adventure

Museu do Ipiranga - São Paulo (Photo: Nanahbhz)

'Victory has got a half-nelson on Liberty from behind. Liberty is giving away about half a ton, and is also carrying weight in the shape of a dying President and a brace of cherubs. (One of the cherubs is doing a cartwheel on the dying President's head, while the other, scarcely less considerate, attempts to pull his trousers off). Meanwhile, an unclothed male figure, probably symbolical, unquestionably winged, and carrying in one hand a model railway, is in the very act of delivering a running kick at the two struggling ladies, from whose drapery on the opposite side an eagle is escaping, apparently unnoticed. Around the feet of these gigantic principals all is bustle and confusion. Cavalry are charging, aboriginals are being emancipated and liners launched. Farmers, liberators, nuns, firemen and a poet pick their way with benign insouciance over a subsoil thickly carpeted with corpses, cannon-balls and scrolls. So vehement a confusion of thought, so arbitrary an alliance of ideas, takes the reason captive and paralyses criticism'

Brazilian Adventure by Peter Fleming. His description of the statuary in Sao Paolo

The Orangery Garden 1998 - 2012

The Orangery was developed from an carpentry shop where they made the stairs and window frames for the houses being built in Wandle Road in the 1890s'. The land was bought by Nicholas Castagli, who did up several houses in the street before developing The Orangery in Georgian style using old pine doors and fittings. We were its first owners. 

The house is approached through a tunnel between two houses and is protected by an electric gate. It has its own driveway and a parking area sufficient for two cars. Looking through the gate from the roadside, one couldn't see the house or even the cars, so it was very secluded.

The garden was paved and planted when we moved in.

The entrance to The Orangery between no's 76 and 80 Wandle Road

The entrance to The Orangery from inside the gateway

The Orangery garden. The houses behind are separated by their gardens from the back of the house

The Orangery garden in spring

The Orangery garden in spring - overlooked by two bedroom windows and the study window

The Orangery - main seating area

The Orangery - main dining area 

Mahonia, wisteria, choysia and honeysuckle

The conservatory

See also The Orangery 1998 - 2012

The Orangery 1998 - 2012

The Orangery was originally a carpentry shop where they made the stairs and window frames for the houses built in Wandle Road in the 1890s. It then lay derelict before being built up into a Geogian 'orangery by Nicholas Castagli. It is approached through a tunnel between two houses and protected by an electric iron gate and its own driveway and has a parking area sufficient for two cars. Looking through the gate from the road, one couldn't see anything of the house or even of the cars, so it was very secluded.

                                                         The Orangery Drawing Room

The prevailing impression inside the Orangery was one of light and peace. The main room had long windows to the garden and the front door and hall were also glazed. 

The hall had double old pine doors

There was no road noise because the house is buried deep in the gardens of the surrounding houses. In fact it has no less than 16 shared boundaries, which sounds problematic but in fact is not. The tall houses in Wandle Road, Broderick Road and Beechcroft Road protect it not only from noise but also from traffic fumes, so the air is always fresh. In addition, there are trees around the boundary, some of which are technically in other people's gardens but we used to take it upon ourselves to keep them pollarded and trimmed so that the Orangery didn't become shadowed and overgrown. Out of every window throughout the house you can see the garden and greenery and glimpses of the sky, so that one never felt in the slightest hemmed in.

The drawing room was large enough to be able to place sofas and a desk so that one can walk round them, rather than having to being ranged along walls as in the usual town houses. At the end of the room, we built a conservatory that increased the feeling of light, and was used for entertaining as well as doubling as an artist's studio. 

The conservatory with garden beyond 

The kitchen looking into the drawing room. It had old pine doors that were habitually left open. 

 

The kitchen

The house had a passage connecting to the bedrooms and bathrooms with my study was off it. It had lots of cupboards and storage space for my files and papers.

The Study

        

Main bedroom

The main bedroom was furnished with screens and scrolls and paintings, with windows on two sides and an ensuite bathroom. 

                    On the other side of the house was a bedroom and bathroom with a terrace. 

The second bedroom with its terrace

Drawing room with paintings and plaster frieze over then fireplace. The set of paintings are by Nobu. 

Looking into the main bedroom

 

The main bedroom

Painted panel in the main bedroom 

Painted panel on the bathroom door 

See also The Orangery Garden 1998 - 2012