Connell speaks at Quit Rents Ceremony

City professor speaks at Quit Rents Ceremony

Professor Tim Connell, director of City's Centre for Language Studies, spoke at the Quit Rents Ceremony at the Royal Courts Justice on 7 October.


Dating back more than 800 years, the Ceremony is the oldest legal act that is still performed other than the Coronation. It is held to mark the occasion when the City Solicitor pays one of the Queen's officials (the Remembrancer) a token for the rent of properties and land leased long ago.

 

For Shropshire - two knives (one sharp, one blunt) and for the Forge in the Strand - six horseshoes and 61 nails.

 

The Ceremony, which brings together London's judiciary and the City Livery Companies, is also when the Sheriffs of the City of London are elected.

 

Professor Connell was invited to speak in his capacity as Fellow of Gresham College. His lecture London: Layers within Layers covered the many and dimensions of London - the social, economic, educational, environmental, cultural diversity that makes London "the first city in the world".

 

He spoke about the way London is growing and changing: "The Square Mile will continue to change shape, though it might be more appropriate to call it the Cubic Mile," he said referring to the Gherkin and other high-rise developments



Date of Article:  11/10/2004