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Welcome to The Foreign Correspondents' Club, Hong Kong on . Local Time . |
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New Cavendish, London |
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The Correspondent magazine, January-February 2010, p.9 |
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The FCC’s overseas reciprocal clubs provide useful boltholes and an aid to orientation in strange cities, writes Robin Lynam. |
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London does not qualify as strange, at least in the sense of unfamiliarity. I was born there and regard it and Hong Kong as my two hometowns, but I don’t have a place of my own in the city, and many times over the years now the New Cavendish has provided me with a very convenient temporary base.
The club is something of an oddity on our reciprocal list. It has no special connection to journalism, and its history, by comparison with our own, is rather genteel. It was founded by Margaret Russell, Baroness Ampthill, who was Chairman of the Voluntary Aid Detachment (VAD) of nurses during the First World War.
After the war the Baroness decided that there should be “a first class ladies club” in London for VAD nurses past and present, and the original clubhouse in Cavendish Square opened in 1920. In 1959 it moved to its present Great Cumberland Place location and became the “New” Cavendish Club. Lady members without VAD credentials were admitted, and eventually the rules were changed to allow gentlemen to join.
The more modestly priced of the club’s rooms lack en suite facilities, and it is perfectly possible, late at night, to encounter elderly ladies in dressing gowns in the corridors who look as though they still do not approve of this innovation.
For those who like clubs – particularly London clubs – to be a little old-fashioned, the New Cavendish is a very comfortable environment. There is a dress code, and although the club no longer insists on a jacket and tie, you do feel more comfortable there if wearing them. Conversation at breakfast – an excellent “full English” is included in the room rate – is muted.
The facilities in most rooms are basic, but you certainly get everything you could reasonably expect for one of the lowest room rates in London, in a prime location. The club is a few minutes walk from Oxford Street and Marble Arch Underground Station and a short cab ride from Paddington Railway Station from which the Heathrow Express departs.
The only meal I have ever eaten at the club is breakfast – one is in London after all – but the menus look good, and as reasonably priced as any food or drink in the city is these days.
The New Cavendish Club
44 Great Cumberland Place, London W1H 7BS, UK
Tel: 44 (0) 207 7230 391/6
info@newcavendishclub.co.uk
www.newcavendishclub.co.uk
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