Tag Archives: club

An elegant Polish club in London’s South Kensington

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Recently. I had lunch with some friends at an elegant Polish club in London’s South Kensington.

Immediately opposite the Imperial College Business School, one of the terraced houses on Exhibition Road (number 55) is the home of Ognisko, the Polish Hearth Club. The word ‘ogniszko., which means ‘hearth’, is related to the Latin word ‘ignis’ and the Sanskrit word ‘agni’, and both mean ‘fire’.

The building can be recognised by the plaque affixed to it, which commemorates the 1956 Hungarian Revolution. Contained in a house constructed in about 1870, the club was founded in 1939. Its website, www.ogniskopolskie.org.uk , explained that the organisation is:

“… a Members’ Club and an important part of Polish Social and Cultural life in London … Founded with the combined initiative of the British and Polish Governments, it was inaugurated by HRH The Duke of Kent in 1940 … It became the hub of Polish social and cultural life, with a good restaurant, meeting rooms, a theatre and a ballroom. It was supported by Officers, along with their families and friends together with a prospering theatrical and literary community. Leading figures in Polish cultural society, along with senior Military figures were frequently to be seen in the Club. After the War it continued to meet the needs of the Polish community, their friends and supporters, as it still does today…”

As for its early history, the website related:

“In order to have a centre where the Free Poles would feel at home a house was rented for £300 p.a. in December 1939 from Sir Frank Newnes who held the leasehold on 55 Prince’s Gate. The Polish House was in effect the intellectual hub for Poles arriving in London whether as civilians, enlisted, diplomats or politicians.”

In 1978, the Club bought the freehold of its home from the University of London. The restaurant, which I have visited several times, serves Polish food in an elegant dining room. We ate our lunch on a covered, air-conditioned terrace, part of the garden behind the clubhouse. The club provides an enjoyable Polish ‘fine dining’ experience. However, although the food is good, it is much better at the less pretentious Café Maja, part of POSK (the Polish Cultural Centre) in Hammersmith.

At the entrance, there is a bust of the composer Chopin. Near it, on the walls of the lobby, there are paintings and photographs.  And in the basement, there are several beautiful old framed posters, each one advertising a tourist destination in Poland.

If you want to experience the elegance of pre-WW2 Poland, a visit to Ognisko will not disappoint.

A house that Adam built in London

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TRAGICALLY, my friend the art historian and author, Michael, died twelve years ago. I had known him since 1964, when the film “Goldfinger” was released in the UK. By a strange coincidence he was born on the same day in October as my mother, and his mother was born on the same day in May as I was. He studied art history at London’s Courtauld Institute, where he also completed his doctorate. His doctoral supervisor was the Director of the Courtauld, the art historian and Keeper of the Queen’s Pictures, Sir Anthony Blunt (1907-1983), who was eventually unmasked as a Soviet Russian agent. When Michael was studying at the Courtauld, it was housed in Home House on London’s Portman Square. I never managed to visit Michael there, but since his demise, I have been there three times.

Originally, Home House was built for Elizabeth, Countess of Home (c1703-1784), a Jamaican born heiress. The edifice, which was completed during her lifetime, was designed by the famous architect Robert Adam (1728-1782). He is famed for having designed not only buildings, but also their interior décor and furniture as well as many small details (e.g., door handles). After a series of owners, Home House was leased in 1926 by the industrialist and art collector Samuel Courtauld (1876-1947) to house his then growing art collection. In 1931, following his wife’s death, he gave Home House to the then young Courtauld Institute of Art, which he helped to found.

The Institute remained in Home House until it shifted to its current home, Somerset House, in 1989. Home House stayed unoccupied until 1998, when it was extensively and beautifully restored and became a private members’ social club, called, unsurprisingly, Home House.

Of all the Adam designed structures I have visited, and these include Kenwood House, Osterley Park, Kedleston Hall, Pountney Bridge, The Adelphi Buildings, and Lutin Hoo, the restored Home House has the best set of Adam designed interiors I have seen. Today, unless you are a member of the club or a member’s guest, it is not otherwise possible to enter this gorgeous mansion; And it was an honour that a friend of ours, a member of the club, has invited us there on several occasions.

After our most recent visit to Home House, I could not help wonderin whether its present reincarnation would have met with my friend Michael’s approval. I have a sneaking feeling that he would have enjoyed what it has become.

A teetotal private club by the seashore in Fort Kochi (Kerala)

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DURING BRITISH RULE in India, the (white) colonisers formed clubs to which Indians, apart from those who worked in them as servants,  were excluded. Many of these colonial era clubs are still in business,  but now serve as refuges to which (mainly) upper middle class and upper class Indians can escape from the other Indians that surround them in daily life.

 

One of these clubs is the Cochin Club in Fort Kochi (Kerala). It stands on land close to the seafront. Prior to the establishment of the club in 1914, this land was formerly Schulers Shipbuilding Yard, and later Grieves Beach Yard. It was given to the founding secretary of the club,H Baechtold,  by Volkhart Brothers.

 

It was only in the 1960s and ‘70s that the club ceased to be exclusively for ‘white’ people. Many of the club’s buildings are fine examples of colonial architecture.  The bar is magnificent, as are the rooms adjacent to it (the lounge-cum-billiards room, the library, and another smaller bar).

 

Although the bar is a marvellous example of  colonial era design, there is now a problem. In the early years of the club, members and their guests used to enjoy alcoholic beverages at the bar, this is no longer the case. Exactly when alcohol ceased to be available I do not knoe.

 

For many years, the club has not had a liquor licence, and given the very high cost of such licences in the State of Kerala  there is little likelihood that an  alcohol licence will be purchased by the club. We were told that if a special occ  such as a wedding reception,  takes place within the lovely grounds of the club, whomever is organising it can purchase (at great cost) a temporary booze licence for the day.

 

Because of the absence of a liquor licence,  the club is often very empty – almost like the famed Marie Celeste. The club has five wonderful, spacious guest rooms, and the income from the guests hiring these is an important source of income for the establishment.  In addition, the club rents out space to other businesses. Currently (January 2026), one of these is a café,  and the other is  a boutique.

 

Outnumbering the usual number of members and room guests in the club are the white egrets that stride around the grounds in a most proprietorial manner.

 

Because we are members of a club affiliated to the Cochin Club, we can use their facilities and hire their bedrooms. The Cochin Club is today, as it was in the past, a peaceful place to escape from the hustle and bustle of Fort Kochi,  which seems to increase each time we visit the town.

Ukrainians from Canada

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LONDON IS RICH in memorials. Some of them commemorate well-known figures and events and others make the observer aware of lesser-known aspects of history. One of these obscurer memorials is on number 218 Sussex Gardens, next to St James Church and not far from Paddington Station. It was placed on the building, which was rented by the Ukrainian Canadian Servicemen’s Association (UCSA) [Союз Українських Канадійських Вояків] in 1943.

According to an informative website (www.ukrainiansintheuk.info/eng/03/ucsa-e.htm), the UCSA was:
“…formed on 7 January 1943 in Manchester, to cater for the social and cultural needs of Ukrainian Canadians serving overseas. Initially the association had 37 members. By the end of the war there were 1,500 active members and over 3,000 additional names on the association’s mailing list.”
That is clear enough, but I wondered about the story of the Ukrainian Canadians. In 2016, there were more than 1.4 million Canadians with Ukrainian ancestry. Canada has the third largest population of Ukrainians after Russia and Ukraine. Almost certainly, 1891 marked the start of the migration of significant numbers of Ukrainians to Canada. Back in those days, the territory, which is now the republic of Ukraine was divided between the Austro-Hungarian and Russian Empires. They were welcomed in Canada as the country needed workers to populate and cultivate the prairies.

The UCSA occupied the house in Sussex Gardens from late 1943 until early 1946. The website quoted above revealed that the UCSA:
“… organised social gatherings, or “get-togethers”, for its members, initially in Manchester and later also in London. A choir and a dance orchestra were organised at the London club, and a library and reading room were maintained there. The association’s activities also included visiting sick and wounded Ukrainian Canadians, compiling lists of those who had died or were taken prisoner, and looking after the graves of the dead (at various cemeteries in the UK, including Brookwood Military Cemetery near Woking, Surrey). From September 1943 the association published an UCSA Newsletter.”
As WW2 drew to a close, the UCSA also provided assistance to Ukrainian displaced persons and refugees from mainland Europe.

The memorial plaque on 218 Sussex Gardens was placed in September 1995, long before Russia began its current conflict with Ukraine. Unlike the statue of the Ukrainian Saint Volodmyr, which stands in Holland Park Avenue, the building near Paddington did not have any pro-Ukraine flags or other patriotic items affixed to it. The plaque is a discrete memorial to an aspect of the history of WW2, about which I knew nothing until today.

Winston Churchill and a newspaper reading stand

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THERE IS A LOVELY old wooden newspaper reading stand is located in the formerly men only bar in the Bangalore Club. It bears the insignia “US” at one end, the S being back to front. Before about 1947, the club was the United Services Club.

Winston Churchill, who was never too fond of India, was briefly a member of the Club (in the late 1890s) , and incurred a small, but never paid debt there. I wonder whether the reading stand is old enough to have been used by Churchill.

Unintended tranquillity

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THE COCHIN CLUB’S main, long, single-storey building is a lovely example of British colonial architecture. The club, located near the sea in a large well-maintained garden was officially recorded as having been established in 1914, but might have been in existence before that.

Originally established as “The English Club”, its members were mainly the British elite of Kochi and European tea planters. Some individuals, high level Indians, might have also been welcome. The Club’s Presidents all had British surnames until at least 1969. However, there was one exception – Honourable Justice P Govindan Nair who was President 1963-64. After 1969, the Presidents had Indian surnames.

Today, the Club is a tranquil spot. Usually, there are more crows and egrets than humans in its compound. The Club has five spacious, bedrooms, which can be hired. Their occupants are almost the only people using the Club. There are plenty of staff members, but few people for them to serve.

The Club has a splendid bar with windows overlooking the sea in one direction and the garden in the other. But it is a bar with a difference. Instead of shelves being lined with bottles of booze, they are used to display cups and other prize trophies. And this might be a clue as to why the Club is so often so empty.

The Club does not have a liquor licence. Therefore, it cannot sell alcoholic drinks. The cost of buying an annual licence is so prohibitively high in Kerala that the Club might not be able to break even. The availability of alcohol is one of the factors that brings life to the exclusive clubs of India.

On special occasions such as Diwali and Christmas and Onam, the Club buys a costly 24 hour licence. The rest of the time, the Club is ‘dry’. However, food and soft drinks are available in the bar. The South Indian filter coffee served there is the best we have found in Fort Kochi (Fort Cochin).

Largely because liquor is not available and because there are few members (about 500), this charming Club has acquired a certain unintended (undesired?) tranquillity.

Where Mahatma Gandhi met Vallabhai Patel in Ahmedabad

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THE GUJARAT CLUB, the oldest club in Ahmedabad, stands opposite the Ahmed Shah Masjid, the oldest mosque in the city. The club was founded in 1888 by Rao Bahadur Nagarji Desai. With over 1000 members, the much used clubhouse is in an unmodernised condition. Located next to the recently constructed (2020) City Civil and Session’s Court, the Club is a ‘hang-out” and informal meeting place for many senior advocates. In former times, the place was frequented by Ahmedabad’s wealthy Mill owners and high ranking Britishers. It was the first Indian club that admitted Indians as well as Europeans from the moment it was established.

Vallabhai Patel above a doorway at the Gujarat Club

The Club is located close to a house where Sardar Vallabhai Patel (1875-1950) lived. Patel frequented the Club regularly and played bridge there. It was where he first met Mahatma Gandhi in 1916. A tree marks the spot where they chatted.

After having passed the Bar Examination at London’s Middle Temple, where my wife achieved the same thing many years later, Patel came to live in Ahmedabad. The first meeting with Gandhi at the Club marked the start of Patel’s attachment to the Mahatma’s cause. Years later, Patel played a key role in uniting the former Princely States with what had been British India to form the India of today. An important freedom fighter for Indian independence, he became a senior member of the country’s government after 1947. A close associate of Gandhi, the two men chose to differ on how to deal with certain issues, for example the creation of Pakistan.

We sat under the verandah of the Gujarat Club and enjoyed cups of tea. From where we sat we could see a large rectangular open space, which was being used as a car park. The ground was marked out with tennis court lines and a couple of nets were stretched between rows of parked cars.

We began conversing with an advocate at the next table. When he learned that my wife was a barrister, he kindly offered to show us around the neighbouring court building.

We spent well over an hour sitting in various court rooms. Most of these had two layers of glass screens, separating the judges and the court officials from the rest of the room: a covid precaution.

Several things impressed my wife as being different from what happens in British courtrooms. First, the plaintiffs are permitted to speak directly with the judges, rather than via intermediaries such as barristers. Secondly, the judges seemed to be handed the papers of a case at the moment it was about to be heard, rather than in advance. Thirdly, each judge was able to switch seamlessly between fluent Gujarati, Hindustani, and English. Also, they made decisions far more rapidly than their counterparts in the UK.

After our fascinating visit to the court house, our host and a charming advocate from his firm invited us to return to the court and the Club to celebrate Republic Day on the following morning, the 26th of January 2023. We accepted, and I will describe the events in another essay.

Our visit to the vibrant Gujarat Club proved far more exciting than we had anticipated. What was once a place where mill owners rubbed shoulders with British officers and officials, where Patel first met Gandhi, is now a congenial place where advocates meet, converse, read, and relax.

The bodies which came back to life

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AT ABOUT FIVE in the morning, a taxi dropped us off at the Madras Gymkhana Club in Chennai. It was late February 1994, and we had just disembarked from an overnight train from Bangalore. We were going to rest at the Club before taking a flight to Colombo in Sri Lanka.

Today, the 8th of January 2023, we revisited the Gymkhana Club, and seeing the place reminded me of a strange experience we had there back in February 1994. The Club, which was founded in 1884, has as its main building an edifice gifted by the Rajah of Venkatanagiri in 1886. Compared with the Madras Club, south of it, its architecture is far less refined.

When we got out of our taxi before daybreak in February 1994, we entered the main building, which was unlit at such an early hour. The night watchman at the reception desk asked us to sit in some armchairs near the entrance until the morning receptionist arrived. After sitting for a while in the hot, humid reception area, the sun began to rise and the Club’s interior began to become visible slowly.

I noticed that we were sitting close to a very large room. As the light improved, I saw that the room was filled with tables. The tables were covered with napkins, cutlery, and plates of unfinished food. Alongside the tables, there were bodies lying on the floor. Soon after dawn, these bodies came to life. They belonged to the Club’s staff – waiters and so on. These people then proceeded to clear up the remains of the previous night’s banquet. Maybe, they had finished too late at night to make it worthwhile to return to their homes for a few hours.

Seeing these people lying in the gloomy light of daybreak and then coming back to life was a memorable experience. Visiting the Gymkhana Club today, 29 years later, evoked this memory powerfully.

Our brief visit to the Club today was quite different. The place seemed far from sleepy, and we received a warm welcome.

A Modulor in Bangalore

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THE BOWRING INSTITUTE is a private members’ social club in central Bangalore (Bengaluru). It was established in 1868, and has been standing on its present site since 1888. The club has recently undergone a tasteful restoration and improvement. The old 19th century buildings can be seen in their full glory, looking as if they have only just been constructed.

One external wall of a club building has been adorned with a huge panel decorated with two Modulors. The Modulor is a symbol created by the great pioneer of 20th century architecture, Le Corbusier. It looks like a man with one arm raised and was designed by Le Corbusier to be “ a visual bridge between two scales: the metric and the imperial…” It was also connected with his philosophy that the proportions of structures should be related to those of the human body.

Le Corbusier had several connections with India. For example, he was intimately involved in the design of the city of Chandigarh and created a few wonderful buildings in Ahmedabad.

That said, I have yet to discover why the Modulor was placed twice on a panel at the Bowring Institute so long after its creator’s death. I would like to think that it is a fitting reminder of the considerable influence that Le Corbusier has had on 20th century Indian architects, including Balkrishna Doshi, whose studio and offices are in Ahmedabad.

A refreshing breeze in Goa

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I SHOULD NOT BE TELLING you about a wonderful place in the heart of Panjim in Goa, but I will.

The Clube Vasco da Gama is situated on the first floor of a building beside Panjim’s lovely Municipal Garden. Founded in 1909, it occupied other buildings before it moved to its present site. With a pleasant decor, which evokes times long past, the Clube serves a wide range of drinks and superbly prepared Goan food. Today, we enjoyed baby squids stuffed with minced vegetable and chopped up squid, served in a tasty sauce. We also ate croquettes filled with a mildly spiced prawn purée. In addition, we consumed fried fish served in a very spicy sauce. Everything tasted wonderful, and as we will be in Panjim for several days, we will work our way through the menu.

We first came across the Clube in April 2018, when the weather was almost unbearable: extremely hot and humid. Quite by chance we came across the Clube and decided to enter it. We discovered that it has two small balconies, each overlooking the Gardens. Each of them has a small table with three chairs. All day long, there is a lovely, cooling breeze blowing across these two tables, making them the coolest places to sit in central Panjim (without resorting to finding places with air-conditioning).

It is because there are only two of these wonderfully positioned tables, it is with some trepidation that I am telling you about them. I do not want to turn up at the Clube to find them occupied by those who have just read this!