Liverpool Street Dining Club

[sammc0004]

Hi Everyone,

I have inherited a lovely wall clock which was originally presented to my Great Grand Father on his retirement as the Chairman of the LNER Liverpool Street Dining Club in 1925. My Great Grand Father was Frank Buckland Nicks and worked as a surveyor, starting as an apprentice in 1889 for the London and North Western at Euston Station. Can anyone tell me more about the Liverpool Street Dining Club please? I have searched the internet but have found no information in the club. Any help greatly appreciated!

[65447]

I am not sure that you have the correct name, in that certain references I find relate to the Land Agent's Staff dinners or similar events. If you are prepared to purchase a copy of the digitised version of the GER Magazine, available through the GER Society (see below) and do a 'find' on the Acrobat files you will bring up a number of refences to the name Nicks that will offer more information. This magazine covers the period up to and just beyond 1925. The cost to non-members of the GERS is a very reasonable £15 plus p&p.

https://www.gersociety.org.uk/index.php ... r-magazine

[sammc0004]

Hello and thanks for your reply.

I do have his name correct and as you will see from the image, the details on the clock's accompanying plaque confirm date of retirement.

I will look into the digital GER offerings thanks, however would know where Liverpool Street Dining Club used to be located? Was it within the station?

Thanks

[65447]

I was not challenging Mr Nicks name but that of 'Liverpool Street Dining Club', which I could not locate in any search. There was however as I stated dinners held by the Land Agent's staff, the Land Agents being only a small department. Below is an extracted report of their annual dinner which confirms that it was held at the associated hotel, better known as the Great Eastern Hotel. The 'dining club' was probably an informal and regular gathering of more senior members of the Land Agent's staff rather than any formal arrangement for the staff at Liverpool Street and they will have self-styled themselves as such.

Mr Parnwell was the Land Agent, who by virtue of circumstances took over from the GER's General Manager Sir Henry Thornton in October 1922, but failed dismally as the Divisional General Manager (Southern Area) under the LNER and left within a year or so.

ANNUAL DINNER OF THE LAND AGENTS STAFF.
THOSE who were fortunate enough to be present at the Annual Dinner of the Land Agent's Staff, held in the Cambridge Room of the Liverpool Street Hotel on Friday, December 8th, will agree that it was great. They are a talented crowd, those Land Agent's fellows, and I am not at all surprised that Mr. Parnwell who was in the Chair, should be proud of them. After a meal that did credit to the Hotel Department (enlivened at one stage by the appearance of a Highlander in full costume who swung round the room playing his bagpipes while others made an offering of haggis to Mr. Duncan Anderson) we listened to Mr. Nicks, as he proposed " The Chairman."

Great Eastern Magazine January 1923 p11

[PhilButton]

In the late seventies I worked for WH Smith at Liverpool Street and was a member of the Dining Club. It wasn't as posh as it sounds then; it was basically a works canteen, available (on payment of an annual membership fee of, I think, 50p or a pound) for use by anyone who worked at the station - BR, LT, GPO, Smiths, etc.
It used to be in part of the old tunnel that once joined platforms 1&2 with the Metropolitan, and was accessed from an entrance in the ramp road down from Liverpool Street itself.
I remember a bright yellow interior, and stuffed hearts for lunch for about £1.50 (including dessert): much cheaper fare than you'd get anywhere else nearby.
The room in the tunnel would have been destroyed when they rebuilt the station, I suspect; with privatisation it could be the only option for lunch for anyone working at Liverpool Street now is an overpriced sandwich from one of the retail outlets.
It is possible the room I used was in use in the 1920s; according to the latest edition of London Railway Record the tunnel linking the main line and Met platforms at Liverpool St was closed off around 1920 for the introduction of the GE Jazz service.
The culture of the Dining Club was very similar to the BRSA and I'm not surprised to learn it had been in existence since the 1920s - maybe longer, it could have used another room elswhere pre-1920.

[STAFFORDA4]

Went from Liverpool St to Cambridge in the early 70s for the first time.
Class 37 hauled with a Gresley Buffet Car if I recall. What I do remember clearly is the LNER cutlery still in use.
Although tempted I was a good lad as we were going to a posh college wedding and I would’ve rattled

[Abbey1234]

Perhaps the Liverpool Street Dining Club was a little more formal than has been suggested. The attached photographs show an Elkington Plate tea pot and a hot water/milk pot. The tea pot shows LSDC engraved to the base with Elkington's year mark for 1925. The hot water/milk pot bears the words "Liverpool St Dining Club" on the side with the year mark for 1926 on the base.