Eva Bacon - Victoria Club for Ladies Ltd, 9 Halkin Street, Westminster, London.

[Tramore]

I wonder if anybody has heard of the above club please. I am researching my mother, Eva Bacon when she was single and working in Westminster, London as a domestic servant during the years 1937 to April 1939 when she got married. I am pretty certain that she stayed at the address of 9 Halkin Street, Westminster. I have been to the LMA and found in the rate books for 1938 that the Victoria Club for Ladies Ltd had paid the rates during that time.
 I looked online for any information I could find for the Victoria Club for Ladies but couldn't find anything satisfactory. I assumed that the club offered board for single girls at the time working in the area to 9 Halkin Street and just wanted to confirm it.
In 1946 9 Halkin Steet was taken over by the Royal Calaedonian Club for Scottish people in London.
I wondered if anybody out there could help me with any information or where to find it for the Victoria Club for Ladies, 9 Halkin Street, Westminster, London in 1938. Thank you.

[Mabel Bagshawe]

There's a detailed article in the Times of Oct 26, 1934. I can;t save a copy to send you, but it marks the occasion of the move of the club to the Halkin St premises with some history. Established in 1894 as a London house for county ladies, it was a brave undertaking in its day, when it was shocking for ladies to have a house of their own and receive men friends and guests. The Halkin St operation was in the house built by Mr Hugh and Lady Mary Morrison 20 yrs earlier on the site of the old Belgrave Chapel. The description mentions 30 bedrooms with running water, some suites, marble halls, telephones and so forth. The Club President was Queen Amelie of Portugal. it was a non political club, with some high ranking members of the honorary committee (duchesses, countesses, Ladies etc)

from the level they were aiming at, I suspect your mother worked in the club and possibly lived in?

[groom]

Have you looked at the 1939 register, I know this is just after your mother left but it may give you some clues. As Mabel said they were all women of Independent Means.

[dawnsh]

Have you contacted the City of Westminster Archives to see if they have anything?

https://www.westminster.gov.uk/visitor-information-archives-centre

[Tramore]

I would like to thank Mabel, groom and Dawnsh. The three people that replied to my post yesterday concerning my mother Eva Bacon and the Victoria Club for Ladies. To answer groom and Dawnsh first my sister and I are carrying out the research and it was at the Westminster Archives that we first checked the electoral roll which confirmed that after getting married in April 1939 she was staying with our father in Cumberland Street, Westminster. The 1939 register showed she had moved to our fathers home in York whilst our father had rejoined the Coldstream guards in Westminster again ready for war.
I would like to say a special thanks to Mabel.Very briefly my sister had researched my mother up to 1936 when she had worked at Parham House for the Pearson Family as a kitchen maid. We didn't know where she had gone to from there except to end up on the electoral roll in 1939 when married. My sister had found an address in one of my mothers recipe books showing 9 Halkin Street, Westminster and she also found entries in my mother's post office book for the same area. That is why we checked the rate books for 1937-38 for 9 Halkin St. and came up with the Victoria Club for Ladies. We assumed that it was a kind of 'hostel' for single working girls in London but could find nothing to confirm this. As you say Mabel she was probably working and staying there since the help lived in at that time. ( Her wages were £60 per year plus keep ) our mother was most certainly not a guest! Lol. She was the daughter of a miner from the midlands.