Dining
Below (left) is a potted history of our recent dining venues.
Also below (right) are details for members concerning how to book yourself into dinner.
Also below (right) are details for members concerning how to book yourself into dinner.
The recent dining history...Connaught Rooms and Oriental Club For many years the Chapter dined at the Connaught Rooms, Great Queen Street. This changed in February 1989 when, for the first time, the Chapter's dinner was held at the Oriental Club, where we then dined regularly for many years. The Club took much longer to reach after meetings, but represented consistently high standards of food and wine. Mountbatten Hotel For reasons of convenience we later relocated to the Mountbatten Hotel, Seven Dials, to which we could walk from our meetings in Holborn, until that hotel closed for refurbishment in 2010. Our longer-serving members remember the Mountbatten years with great fondness, and the great efforts of the legendary Clive Thompson to provide good quality champagne (corkage paid to the hotel), which he would offload from his motor car outside in Seven Dials earlier in the afternoon of each of our meetings. The wandering years Suddenly without a dining venue, the Chapter dined temporarily at nearby hotels throughout 2011 and 2012, awaiting the return of the refurbished Mountbatten Hotel; but alas it returned with not just a new name, but also a totally different and exotic character, unsuited to us. The Lansdowne Club From the start of 2013 we began dining at the Lansdowne Club in Mayfair, which became our regular home for a happy seven years. Our quasquicentenary banquet was held in the Lansdowne's magnificent ballroom. We dined regularly at the Lansdowne until the end of 2019. All under one roof Following changes at the Club, we moved again, and since 2020 we have been pleased to be able to dine very comfortably in Freemasons' Hall, making use of exciting and interesting dining facilities in our Order's headquarters, which is also conveniently where we hold our chapter meetings. In 2023 we experimented a little with some off-site dining, preparatory to a new regime from 2024, under which we hope to dine at Freemasons' Hall twice a year, but go out to an alternative venue after our annual installation meeting - probably the Club of one of our members. |
The next meeting...Will you be dining with us at the next Chapter meeting? If you wish to dine, please email the Scribe E (or send a message through this website) and also transfer the specified dining fee to the Chapter's bank account: NatWest (Piccadilly & New Bond Street) 50-41-01 23168846 Royal Somerset House & Inverness Chapter By long established tradition, the dining fee always includes a champagne or sparkling wine reception before dinner. |