Open House

Today, I booked with Cultureseekers - it's Open House, and they were off to the London Scottish House and the Banqueting House.  However, I then got (yet another) message from the organiser, encouraging me to become a "full member" - pay a yearly fee, and you can waive the fee for paid events throughout the year. Fair enough - except, frankly, there are groups I would pay to be with, and this is not one of them. I never go to paid events with them. So, I think I might become a shadow member of this group, as I sometimes do with others - I know he's not asked me to pay for this event specifically, but I'm tired of the hard sell, and there is nothing stopping me going to these venues on my own - at my own pace. Not a terribly sociable group, anyway.

Advantages to my decision:

1. I could set off when I pleased. Now, I already had this in my calendar, and wasn't yet ready to leave the house when I got a notification that it was starting in two minutes!

2. I had never heard of The Scottish House, so looked it up - it's a kind of warehouse building that was used for military purposes! Sorry, not my thing - of course, on my own, I could skip that - and I did, heading straight to The Banqueting House.

3. Even though I'd cancelled my RSVP, I still got group messages - including the one from some poor individual, wondering where the group was! Typical Cultureseekers - the organiser does tell you where to meet, but then he gets tons of people on it, you're moving from one place to another, and there's no effort to coordinate people, who all just move from place to place as they feel like it! Could I be bothered with the effort of trying to find people I'd never met before? I remember that happened before, and I did go to the allotted pub, but never did run into any of the group for the rest of the evening..

I stopped at my local shop en route for a bottle of water - happy to see they've replenished their supply. And as I was walking the last bit, I passed a Mr. Softee - so I had to have a 99 as well! Even found a shady spot to sit in to eat it. I'm telling you, it's the only way to combat this heatwave - have something refreshing constantly to hand. So, I survived the walk - nearly missed the entrance to The Banqueting House though, it's so discreet! A nice lady with a neck fan checked my bag quite thoroughly, exclaiming as she started that her fan had just stopped working! My first stop when I went in was the toilet - which I must say was most impressive:

The main business, however, is upstairs - and the staircase is graced with a couple of portraits of Charles I, who of course commissioned the spectacular ceiling here, which ended up being one of the last things he saw as he went to his execution, just outside:

Of course, all anyone is really interested in is that ceiling:

There are the usual, convenient mirrors, pointed upwards so you can see the detail without craning your neck - as well as explanation of (some of) the detail, which is considerable. Took poor Rubens, who painted it, three years to get paid, apparently.. but the king was so impressed that all the candles had to be lit elsewhere, lest the smoke emanating from them damage his precious ceiling! Give him that much, he was an art lover.. and his bust, over the doorway as you leave, still watches over his favourite commission:

Convenient, upholstered benches along the walls were much appreciated. And.. that was that. The ceiling - and those portraits on the stairs - are impressive, but they're the whole show: so it didn't take me long to start browsing for somewhere else to go. It was now a bit after 3, so other places should be open.. I filtered by openings today, and the nearest was the National Liberal Club, five minutes' walk away! In fact, they had guided tours every half hour, on the half hour! and if I got a wiggle on, I could make the 3.30. So off I popped.

The MoD has an impressive building:

There are also a couple of war memorials, nicely set off by some attractive trees:

At the club, I found the door open, so moseyed on in:

It was just coming up to 3.30, and the nice lady on the desk asked whether I was booked on that tour. I told her no, and that I was just taking a chance (I hadn't been sure I'd make this one, and until 5, they weren't booking up). No problem, she just added my name to the list. And sure enough, in just a couple of minutes, we were off - led by the club's archivist, it turned out, and shadowed by some Open House volunteer. To make sure we didn't make off with the furniture, perhaps..?

There's a ton of artwork, which we spent some considerable time talking about. The only person I recognised from ground level was Winnie:

As our guide explained, the subject of this painting was constantly in and out of favour, and when out, his portrait tended to be confined to the basement..

Spectacular staircase:

Now, as our guide explained, times have been hard for the club for the past 100 years. They used to own the whole building - now only the ground and first floor; they've sold the upper floors, where they used to offer accommodation, to the hotel next door.  

On the first floor, he explained to us how, unlike other clubs, which use drapes, the Liberal Club has tiled walls - back in the day when people smoked indoors, it was much easier to remove the smell! The tiles were made in Leeds, the club having a strong focus on trade, and are of a slightly different design in different rooms. Here's a portrait of Jinnah, who was a member:

They hire out a number of rooms as function rooms - this one has a new Steinway in it, and he said they do concerts:

The Lady Violet Room tends to be used for ladies' events - the unusual shape of the building causes it to have nooks and crannies:

The most impressive room is the Smoking Room (where smoking is no longer permitted). A long room, he explained how the clever positioning of furniture breaks up the space. He also had a cute anecdote about how David Lloyd George used this as his sitting room - and had a habit of standing in front of the fireplace and pulling down his trousers to warm himself! Causing some complaints from other members..

By now, I was beginning to feel a little worse for wear - despite a number of open windows providing a lovely breeze, people were starting to sit when possible, and unlike in a museum, nobody minded. So I sat at a couple of chairs here, as we moved through the room - I'd finished my water in the Banqueting House. And from now on, I sat wherever possible - happily, the end of the tour provides more seating.

And so to the terrace (which has plenty of chairs), which he described as a terrific place to watch New Year's Eve fireworks, having the great view of the Thames and the London Eye that it does! Also lovely on a hot day - it has plenty of shady umbrellas, and the breeze up there was only amazing today.

The dining room has an opening to the terrace, too, and a statue of Gladstone, who founded the club, at the end - pointing, as his statues always do. The guide thought it might have had something to do with his having a prosthetic finger:

Further down the room is a portrait of him as a younger man:

Our tour ended in what was originally the toilet, subsequently converted to a function room, where - as he said - they have stashed whatever they could find:

Happily, I listened to his whole spiel crashed out on a sofa - as did many. We'd been given promotional fliers for the club at the start, and now he described membership - £888 per annum for "town" members, £555 for "country" members (who do not live or work in London), less for young members. They no longer provide accommodation, but do run events, and you can get dinner there. Someone reminded him about reciprocity - he laughed and said he'd lose his job for forgetting that! The club has reciprocal deals with a number of others around the world - as he says, some of which are quite exclusive and hard to access otherwise.

It's a great advertising opportunity for them, of course - and good luck to them, but I doubt this kind of club is really going to appeal to younger folk. It's something of a relic - and personally, I wouldn't be up for the "champagne and oysters" event I saw advertised throughout the club. Champagne doesn't agree with me, and oysters are definitely an acquired taste that I haven't acquired. I can see the advantage, though - it's a lovely location, and it would be very handy to have a bolthole nearby if you were in this part of town: especially with guests. He had invited us to peruse the drinks menu, which seemed typically priced. Might certainly be an option for special events, where other places were booked up.. shame they no longer do accommodation.

Well, I survived the hour-long tour, and took myself to a bench in the adjacent Victoria Embankment Gardens to recover myself for some minutes. Decided I'd better have food, and that the best option round about seemed to be L' Ulivo. As I say, I don't tend to fancy Italian in the heat - but it had clouded over, and was markedly cooler, so I thought I'd risk it. Now, the last time I was here, service was dreadful - I'm happy to say, that's no longer the case, with everyone right on the ball. I was seated right away, and headed straight for the toilet - not as salubrious as those at the Banqueting House, it was also stuffy, and my cubicle had no toilet paper..

No sooner was I back at the table than the waiter appeared - I ordered straight away: my usual, of course. Service was like lightning - I don't remember when I was last served so fast in a restaurant! Garlic bread was gorgeous - new recipe, I think. But oh, the chicken was a disappointment - the toughest I've had in years! Honestly, I won't be having it there again. I decided to have a dessert, to compensate, if something appealed - and hey, they had a lemon tartufo, with limoncello centre! Only divine, and so good in the heat. Seriously good food - just don't have the chicken..

Tomorrow, I'm off to The Effect at the National.

Then - for the first time in a long time - there's a run of Meetup events - and specifically, Up in the Cheap Seats (UITCS)! On Tuesday, back with them to see Russell Howard for the last night of his run at the Palladium - terrible trouble finding a decent seat in the Grand Circle, which was all that was left! And since I now have three (!) online interviews scheduled for that day, some comedy will be just what I need.

On Wednesday, I was to be back with Laurence Summers and the 45+ Not Grumpy Old Londoners for The Long and Winding Road, a walk about, of course, The Beatles! Personal commitments, however, have meant he's postponed it. So now I'm going with UITCS to It's Headed Straight Towards Us! (a comedy about a volcano), at Park Theatre.

On Thursday, back with them for Anthropology, at Hampstead Theatre. Cheap tickets from TodayTix. Then I'm back to Ireland for the weekend.

The next two days are with UITCS again - on the 18th, it's Crazy for You, at the Gillian Lynne Theatre.

On the 19th, it's Octopolis, at Hampstead Theatre again!

And on the 20th, I'm with CT for a classical concert - a Chamber Recital at St. Mark's, Hamilton Terrace. Regular tickets from TicketSource.