Castle Baynard Ward Club

www.cbwc.org.uk

Annual Dinner
15th May 2025, The Crypts of The Guildhall, London

 

Annual Dinner
17th May 2022, The East Crypt At Guildhall, London

 

Annual Dinner
November 2016, Armourers' Hall, London

 

Civic Luncheon
April 2016, The Old Library, Guildhall, City of London

 

Annual Dinner
November 2010, The Crypt, Guildhall, London

  

Castle Baynard Ward Club was founded in 1909 by Sir Thomas Vansittart Bowater Bt, Lord Mayor 1913/14 and for many years a MP for the City of London. Historically the Club's objectives lay in protecting the Ward's interests and enabling members to meet their elected councilmen in the City of London Corporation. Our current councilmen are led by Alderman lan Luder, who served as Lord Mayor of the City in 2008/09 — the year in which the Club celebrated its centenary, and eight Common Councilmen. Electors must live in the Ward, be a partner or principal in a business or represent an active business within the Ward area.

The Club arranges about seven or eight functions each year. Membership is open to anyone with a connection with the Ward or interested in City affairs and heritage. The Club's activities are now mainly social gatherings including informative talks, wide-ranging visits to places of interest, an annual dinner often held in one of the City's Livery Halls, an occasional lunch in Guildhall and an annual Carol Service in the Wren Church of St. Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe which is located in the ward.

Castle Baynard has the distinction of being associated with the earliest known Alderman of a London Ward. In an ancient deed, dated 1111, in the reign of Henry I one of the witnesses is Turstenus, or Tursten, who is described as "Alderman of the Ward". The Ward is Castle Baynard for the property referred to in the deed was close to the church of St Benet. In the most ancient list of the Wards Castle Baynard Ward appears as "Warda Episcopi" or the Bishop's Ward, and heads the list. The Ward was so named as it contained the Bishop's Palace, the seat of the ecclesiastic government of the City, and perhaps owed its pre-eminence to the fact that the Bishop was the recognised senior Joint-Ruler of the City, and as such had precedence over his colleague the Portreeve in William the Conqueror's charter. Later the Ward was called after the notable building which was for many centuries its price and glory, Baynard's Castle. This castle stood on the north bank of the Thames, in Thames Street, with a frontage to the river, at the south-west extremity of the old City wall.