Our Start

The City of London Speakers Club was founded, in the summer of 1984, by the inimitable Neil Crighton, who still finds the time to attend meetings on a regular basis. At the time, Neil was a marketing manager for Equitable Life and for four years he had been running a speakers training course for the Insurance Institute of London at Aldermanbury.

The club was initially formed from those who had attended the courses so the founder members, including Alan Free and Ray Robinson, who are also still members, all came from the world of insurance. However, many stalwarts from other speakers’ clubs supported the early meetings and within only a few weeks, the club had some of the largest attendances in the country. In fact, Alan recalls that the biggest problem was making sure that everyone who came along was given the opportunity to participate.

Our Venues (a Chronology)

The George

The first meeting place was at a now demolished public house, known as The George, opposite the Old Bailey. In those days, the wannabe great speakers met in an upstairs room and retired downstairs to the bar during the interval. Ray recalls that the barmaid used to make snide remarks about boring men because, at the time, the club was all male. Going upstairs after the interval could also be quite hazardous because the darts players were sometimes uncooperative about suspending play and their board hung right by the staircase.

Perhaps fortunately, before anyone was unspeakered by a stray dart, the George was scheduled for demolition and the club found new facilities at the Press Club underneath some railway arches near Blackfriars. Sometimes the members had their own room but other times they shared the bar area with imbibing journalists and the two groups had to ignore each other’s existence.

The Colon

In its early years the Club had its own regular newsletter “Colon” which was edited by Brian Hodgson an employee of the Guardian newspaper. Sadly, the newsletter did not survive following Brian’s emigration to Australia.

Home from Home

The next home was in the basement of the Bowring Building at Tower Place and the club stayed there for many years until that too was demolished.

The club then had two homes in Smithfield. The first was in an upstairs bar to a pub but that venue only lasted as long as it took the landlord to appreciate that nobody drank enough to keep the barman employed profitably. The second was upstairs in a restaurant but, as the tables were close together and all set up for the morning, it was not conducive to good public speaking, particularly as one member regularly sent the cutlery flying, though not with any malicious intent. After a brief acquaintance with the rather splendid boardroom at J H Minet's offices in Leman Street, the club moved to its current home.

BT House

Very soon, the membership embraced people from all walks of life. One of these was Trevor Havelock and it was his enthusiasm that kept the club going through the inevitable lean times and whose role at British Telecom eventually led to the club's current meeting place at BT House. The “Trevor Havelock trophy”, in his memory, is awarded to the winner of the club’s annual speech contest.

City of London University

Debra Owen-Hughes successfully managed the clubs transition in venue to the City of London University classrooms, handing over the reigns to Paul Constable, who subsequently managed the club at this venue until the summer of 2007.

Islington Green School

We have been actively seeking and have now found a new venue at the Islington Green School. We also have new staff, led by Geraldine McMahon as the new president. Meetings begin in January 2008.

We Are Successful!

The founder members all speak with enthusiasm of what membership has achieved for them. One of the further pleasures that longer serving members enjoy is witnessing the personal development of newer members as they grow in both public speaking skills and personal confidence.

The club has enjoyed considerable success within the Association of Speakers Clubs by providing speakers at the National Speech contest on four occasions. Alan Free has represented the Club three times and Bernard Catallo once. Alan was also chosen to speak at the Speaker of the Year dinner in honour of Edwina Currie held at the House of Commons. He was not the first person to open a speech with the immortal words, “I had a dream” but he delivered them with greater humour.

A major City like London provides many opportunities for people who are prepared to stand up and speak professionally, whether it be on behalf of their employers or at general seminars run by event organisers. Surprisingly, perhaps, not all of them are as proficient as they should be and sometimes what should be a good speech is spoiled by elementary errors.

There are numerous opportunities for club members to learn how to avoid such errors, enhance their career prospects or just earn some extra money. The successful delivery of a good speech can lead to a tremendous buzz, whether at club level or in front of a new audience, perhaps even a paying one. One of our members can earn up to £2000 for a one and a half hour speech. Even that is only a fraction of what can be earned by after dinner speakers. However, perhaps the most important benefits of belonging to the club are the friendship and support of others and the confidence of knowing you can do well something that many would not contemplate doing at all.