Building buys a pint ... for John Rowan & Partners

Guy Ritchie’s Mayfair-based Punchbowl is the venue when Building buys a pint for John Rowan & Partners. It’s not their local haunt - they’ve travelled in from Ealing to their chosen watering hole, an intriguing choice that suggests a fascination with Georgian period features and celebrity status. In fact the firm regularly branches out from the pubs around their office thanks to their CFAED initiative: the “campaign for alternative Ealing drinking”, which sees them embark on pub crawls in other London locations. The younger members of the team won’t be drawn on any scandal emanating from these events - put off, possibly, by the turnout of senior managers tonight.

Lobbing footwear across a field is not this team’s only talent. They also fancy themselves as keen footballers

On safer ground, the team at JRP are happy to brag about their sporting endeavours. The competitive nature of some members of the team is on display at the “school sports day” style event the company holds which includes highly skilled activities such as the egg and spoon race, the three-legged race and “welly wanging”. This is a particular talent of one of their colleagues - “you won’t believe how far he can throw a welly”, Ian gushes. But lobbing footwear across a field is not this team’s only talent. They also fancy themselves as keen footballers and talk animatedly of hotly contested games against client A2Dominion and Ernst & Young, who Duncan reveals are “not as nice as you’d expect accountants to be” on the field and “could have been more gracious” in their victory. One to remember for future cross-sector sporting encounters.

From sport the conversation turns to Twitter, which none of the team use except Paul, who has an account but has never tweeted, followed anyone or gained a follower. In fact JRP are suspicious of the social media platform - they talk darkly about a colleague who once tweeted about having stiff legs after a football game and was then targeted and spammed by stairlift companies. The presence of some companies on Facebook baffles Ian: “Why would you want to look at your washing powder’s page on Facebook?”

Why would you want to look at your washing powder’s page on Facebook?

The team is keen to hear Building’s views on social media - indeed the tables are turned disconcertingly when JRP begin asking many other probing questions. There is even a spate of note-taking and some paparazzi-style snaps taken from a camera phone. It transpires that Building’s write-up is not the only one of the evening and JRP are putting together a report of the night for their company newsletter. There was no sign that the team were preparing to let up on the rounds of pints when Building left so it would be interesting to read what they came up with.