George Green’s School ‘floats’ Ark in Lord Mayor’s Show—as ‘flood warning’

Pupils taking part in the Lord Mayor’s parade weren’t taking chances with the weather. There could be floods if the heavens opened—so they kept close to Noah’s wooden ark, just in case.

The youngsters from George Green’s Secondary on the Isle of Dogs were part of the 800th Lord Mayor’s Show through the City of London, joined by students from the London Nautical School and the Sea Cadets.

They helped make the appropriate ‘float’ ship-shape, of course, for the grand parade.

The float was sponsored by the Worshipful Company of Shipwrights livery company which goes back 700 years—not quite as far as the Great Flood that Noah and the animals survived.

The school’s founder, George Green, was himself a shipbuilder two centuries ago.

So the ancient Shipwrights livery company continue supporting the school due to the shipbuilding connection.

This year’s new Lord Mayor is Jeffrey Mountevans, who served as the Prime Warden of the Shipwright Company from 2006 to 2007.

The Shipwrights sponsored building a wooden ark which was ‘floated’ on the back of a lorry for the parade that was staged last weekend, with a teacher as Noah and pupils aboard two-by-two made up as animals.

The Lord Mayor’s Show is like no the in the world, with 7,000 taking part... 20 bands, 150 horses, hundreds of carriages, carts, coaches, vintage cars, steam buses, tanks, tractors, ambulances, fire engines, unicycles, ‘penny farthing’ bicycles, steamrollers, giant robots, helicopters, ships, beds and bathtubs—and of course Noah’s Ark!

Ironically, it started raining as the float passed St Paul’s Cathedral heading down Ludgate Hill towards The Strand, so the pupils put on their rain macs and the crowds put up their umbrellas.

But thankfully, the rain wasn’t forecast to last 40 days and 40 nights.