Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Look at Life: The National Liberal Club



Well, it's really called "Members Only", but from 1:30 to 3:30 there is some lovely footage of the National Liberal Club - apologies for the sexist views expressed.

The film is dated 1965 and the commentary implies the building may soon be demolished. Fortunately, it was not.

I did not know the staircase was rebuilt after the Blitz, but then not may people know that the club's wine cellar is housed in the remains of an early underground railway.

2 comments:

  1. I thought that if you went to the NLC wine cellar, you could see the brick Gladstone himself laid?

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  2. Before the blitz the stairwell had a Gothic colonnade running all the way up.

    War is absolutely terrible. However, it occasionally has beneficial consequences.

    PS: I am sure that somewhere in the club you can see a toenail Gladstone's valet clipped off after he complained of a sore foot following a night of campaigning amongst the female non-voters who made up a sizeable proportion of Westminster's night time economy. It's probably in a silver guilt case.

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