London Procession of the Worshipful Company of Vintners

Where:	London at Vintners Hall, Upper Thames Street
When:	2nd Wednesday in July
Time:	11.45

The Worshipful Company of Vintners is a London trade guild for purveyors of wine. The Company elects its new Master each year in July, and a special Installation Day service is held at the Church of St James Garlickhythe, the local church with links to the Guild. A Procession follows the Master and Wardens in Tudor dress, from Vintners Hall the to the church; their path is swept by a wine porter using a birch broom, in a practice originating long ago when the streets weren’t clean and paved as they are today. Participants also carry nosegays, presumably because the old streets didn’t smell too sweet either!