The final time I visited the Garrick Membership, I noticed Ann Widdecombe scuttling by the hallway in the direction of the exit.
‘I all the time pop in if I am passing, simply to make use of the rest room,’ she defined to the member who had invited me.
It struck me then that she had her priorities proper. The Garrick is a spot to go to, for no matter motive, however to not be a part of.
The final time I visited the Garrick Membership, I noticed Ann Widdecombe scuttling by the hallway in the direction of the exit, writes Craig Brown
Even so, a bunch of girls has been battling for a few years to steer the all-male membership to confess feminine members.
Cherie Blair was first refused admission 45 years in the past and remains to be in a fury about it.
Describing the membership’s continued opposition to ladies members as ‘outrageous’, she has simply added her identify to a petition calling for the West Finish membership to drop its all-male coverage.
The petition was instigated by Emily Bendell, who’s described as a ‘lingerie tycoon’. Apparently, she began the petition after her utility was rejected.
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However why would a lingerie tycoon wish to be a part of the Garrick? Cherie Blair claims that girls lengthy to community there, however my very own information of the membership means that members would quite trade details about tweed fits, bow ties and cigars than bustiers or attractive stockings.
Fishnetworking just isn’t excessive on their agenda.
The late novelist Kingsley Amis was in some ways a typical member. He used to take pleasure in getting drunk there.
His letters to his good friend Philip Larkin are filled with references to what he calls ‘boozy lunches’.
In 1983, he wrote to Larkin saying that he had simply spent a day ingesting brandy with an aged actor, insulting Roy Hattersley and utilizing unhealthy language.
On December 18, 1984, he informed Larkin that he was ‘Off to the Garrick shortly for my Christmas drunk [sic] there.
‘If nothing else saved me in London that place would. Someplace to get p****d in jovial not very literary brilliant ALL-MALE firm.’
Do Cherie and her friends know what they’re letting themselves in for?
There’s a story of an aged member who died of a coronary heart assault within the upstairs bar.
One of many many peculiarities of the Garrick is that it’s the beneficiary of a fortune bequeathed to it by A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh
As his corpse was being carried down the primary staircase by two porters, a sozzled fellow member, climbing up the steps, exclaimed: ‘My goodness, it is Carruthers, is not it? I have not seen you since we had been at nursery faculty collectively! How are you retaining?’
This chimes with the leathery, old-school ambiance of the membership, which is a kind of plush retirement house for previous actors, publishers and barristers.
It has been mentioned that the membership abides by the rule that ‘it might be higher that ten unobjectionable males ought to be excluded than one horrible bore ought to be admitted’.
Alas, judging by the excessive proportion of bores to be discovered there on any given night, it is a rule that was made to be damaged.
Members of the Garrick take a perverse, self-congratulatory enjoyment of signalling their membership by carrying the membership tie when they’re out and about.
The tie consists of a very hideous mixture of salmon and cucumber stripes.
For the remainder of us, the very sight of it acts as an early-warning system: The minute you notice somebody coming in the direction of you in a Garrick Membership tie — or, worse, bow tie — everybody is aware of to dart behind the closest curtain.
One of many many peculiarities of the Garrick is that it’s the beneficiary of a fortune bequeathed to it by A. A. Milne, the creator of Winnie-the-Pooh. That is in line with the membership’s lush, Edwardian nursery ambiance.
In his diary entry for October 27, 1977, the eminent headmaster of Westminster Faculty, John Rae, visits the Garrick.
‘Dine on the Garrick this night because the visitor of the Pooh Trustees. A. A. Milne was a scholar at Westminster between the wars and left the college one quarter of his royalties, at the moment bringing us about £40,000 a yr.
‘I’m right here to symbolize the college on the occasional mix of excellent fare and whimsy. A worn teddy bear is on the centre of the desk and in his speech the chairman of the trustees addresses the bear as ‘Pooh’.’
That is the world clever, highly effective ladies like Emily Bendell and Cherie Blair are actually so keen to affix. Why?
‘It is about networking, mentoring,’ says Cherie. ‘…When you have a spot the place solely males can go and ladies are excluded… you’re lacking out on alternatives, which isn’t solely unfair however just isn’t encouraging range usually.’
To which the one correct reply have to be ‘Pooh!’
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