It was a joy to be able to incorporate an additional element to this year's London Pub Meet, and support an Old Princethorpian business at the same time. Jonnie Fielding, Class of 1996, founded Bowl of Chalk over 15 years ago, offering guided walking tours to the 'incurably curious' to help them discover, uncover and experience London. He kindly arranged with us to give an OPs-only tour of Clerkenwell and Smithfield, with Jonnie providing fascinating insights into the area's history.

The curious crew was comprised of Old Princethorpians Paul Adams (Class of 1981), Amit Patel (Class of 1985), Class of 1995 alumni Alex Rogers, Mike Edwards and Matthew Hope, retired History teacher Tracey Hester, and Foundation staff Ed Hester, Melanie Butler and Caroline Spencer. Jonnie's tour took in the old Charterhouse Monastery (which became Charterhouse School), St Bartholomew-the-Great, a 12th century survivor of a church, and a 900 year old meat market, concluding at Smiths of Smithfield where the group enjoyed a well earned refreshment with the rest of the OP crowd.

It was wonderful to welcome back over 40 OPs for the Pub Meet. Regular returners included Alex Darkes (Class of 1975 and former Assistant Head), Charlie Lawton (Class of 1974), Jeremy Masding (Class of 1984 and former Head Boy), Joe Stimpson (Class of 2014) and Fred Self (Class of 2020) and there was much merriment and reminiscence as they mingled with former and current staff. Chris Kerrigan (former Head of English) enjoyed catching up with current teacher of English Jess Newborough, and Ed and Tracey Hester enjoyed a trip down memory lane with the 2014 contingent.

The atmosphere was excellent, and the staff at Smiths of Smithfield put on a delicious spread to fuel us through the evening. We thank all those who made the journey to join us. If you missed out this year, please do keep an eye out for next year's date and venue, and we have plenty of other opportunities for you to connect with us and your OP peers in the meantime. Please visit Princethorpe Connect's Event Page for details.

Our next OPs Pub Meet is the Local Meet, taking place on Friday 5 March 2027, venue TBC. We would love to see you there!