Call Sign March 2000

CALL SIGN'S 'CAPPUCCINO CABBY' ON JAPANESE TV

The female Dial-a-Cab driver dubbed by this magazine as the 'cappuccino cabby' - thanks to her numerous coffee breaks throughout the day - Lorraine Davey (L16), was approached by Tom Whitbread last month and asked if she would mind being followed around by a television crew from Japanese TV station NHK (see Editorial).
   The idea was for the camera crew to follow Lorraine both around town and into her home and in the process, allowing Japanese viewers to view the latest in the NHK series showing some of the world's more unusual occupations. In Japan, a woman driving a taxi is very unusual!
   Lorraine told Call Sign that the crew were with her for four days.
   "Always polite" she said "and not as intrusive as you would have thought in my home."
   Several members of Lorraine's family are taxi drivers, but as men they were acceptable to NHK viewers - but a lady taxi driver? You will have to travel to Tokyo to see what the Japanese public thinks of Lorraine.
   And what about following Lorraine on the road? Weren't the passengers set up? After all, the program asked them how they felt about being driven by a woman...
   "No" said Lorraine, "the passengers were all

genuine, but of course we had to warn them when they hailed me that they would be asked questions and also ask if they minded sharing a cab with a Japanese film crew and director! I took them all to the destinations that they asked for but reimbursed their fares! No one complained and the Westminster account clients who had phoned for their cab, seemed especially happy to do the interviews!"
And did Lorraine enjoy the experience?
"Definitely" said Lorraine, "so long as no one on DaC sees it!!!"

CALL SIGN LOOKS AT LONDON'S
GUILDS AND LIVERIES

By popular request, we will be taking a regular look at London's Guilds and Liveries.

Apothecaries
Formerly aligned with the Grocers, the Apothecaries received their first charter in 1617 and have been a craft guild from their beginning with the original members being engaged in the arts and mystery. The society gradually developed into a medical licensing body granting the degree of LMSSA, post graduate diplomas, and after the passing of the 1815 Apothecaries Act, the granting of a dispenser's certificate (degrees from Apothecaries Halls are known to medical students as Pots Hall degrees).
Among the many former distinguished members included Gideon Delaune, a founder and the apothecary to Anne of Denmark, John Parkinson who was Royal Apothecary to James I and John Keats (1795 - 1821) who qualified with distinction and practised for a year before becoming a poet. There was also the 'father of British neurology', John Hughlings Jackson (1835 - 1911).

In 1673, the society formed the Chelsea Physic Garden of four acres and handed it over in 1899 to the trustees of London Parochial Charities.
The hall is situated in the cobbled Blackfriars Lane EC4 and was rebuilt following the Great Fire of London between

1668 and 1670. The building has a collection of British and foreign pharmacy, porcelain and stoneware.

Armourers and Brasiers
Originally the Guild of St George of the Armourers dating from 25th January 1322, the company still possesses it's principal charters dating from 1453, 1559, 1685 and 1708, the last incorporating the Brasiers with the Armourers. It was totally engaged in it's craft on formation, providing service,

assistance and hospitality both top its own fraternity and the community, and these aims are still carried out though the trade of an armourer no longer exists.
   The company maintains a collection of armour and weapons including the tilting suit of Sir Henry Leigh KG, Queen Elizabeth's champion from 1559 to 1599.
   The company provides funds for research fellowships in metallurgy at various universities. The City oft restricts London Yeomanry (Rough Riders), formed in 1900, was affiliated to the company from 1938 to 1961, when it amalgamated with the Inns of Court Regiment and the affiliation continues with the amalgamated regiment.
   The hall is at 81 Coleman Street, EC2; the site of the Dragon and Two Shoppes was leased in 1346 and purchased in 1428; surviving the Great Fire, it was pulled down in 1840, rebuilt and fortunately escaped the blitz on London.
   Information supplied courtesy of 'Discovering London's Guilds and Liveries' by John Kennedy Melling.