Named after Paddy Ashdown MP leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 – 1999, the Ashdown Room is the perfect space for small business meetings and gatherings adorned with items from our Club history. Fitted with a TV screen with webcam supporting audio/video capabilities, it is set up for remote access meetings using platforms like Zoom and Google Teams. Presentations can easily be made too, with laptops or mobile devices connecting quickly and simply to the screen.
One of the newest room additions to the Club is The Lounge. During the day, members can use the space to relax with friends and family while surrounded by an array of Liberal paintings, memorabilia and artefacts, or utilise the desks to work from. By evening, this is the location of our second bar, so becomes the perfect spot to socialise with a drink or attend one of our many Clubs and Circle talks and events which are often held within this space.
The Naoroji Room features a comprehensive array of business-grade technology, with large 75in screen and webcam supporting audio/video conference calling for remote access meetings using platforms like Zoom and Google Teams. Presentations can easily be made too, with laptops or mobile devices connecting quickly and simply to the screen. Movie nights or video showings will also be an option via the top grade sound system and 4K HD technology.
The room will principally focus on meetings, with a large central modular table seating a maximum of 20 people. For other event types, the central table can be easily rearranged to form suitable alternative configurations like classroom or theatre style. The latter accommodating up to 50 people, perfect for a talk, lecture or presentation.
The largest of the Club’s function rooms, the David Lloyd George Room can seat up to 140 people for a theatre setting, 120 people for lunches and dinners, 100 for a dinner and dancefloor setup and up to 200 for standing events. Originally designed as the Club’s Grill Room, it still has two enormous original Victorian grill mountings, which gives it much of its character, and is decorated throughout with Alfred Waterhouse’s distinctive tilework.
The room was named in honour of Liberal Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who had lodged in the Club in the 1890s. Lloyd George also made extensive use of the Grill Room, including when he hosted a dinner there in 1905 to mark Winston Churchill’s defection to the Liberal Party. A copy of Felix Weiss’ 1935 bust of Lloyd George is to be found by the window.
The Lloyd George Room hosts the Club’s larger functions and is available for private hire. It is equipped with a comprehensive suite of AV facilities including an 8-speaker integrated sound system, 85in TV Screen with web-cam and full video conferencing technologies.
Elegant and ornate, the Lady Violet room is an oasis of calm, with plenty of natural light, decorative corners and period features, its charming cruciform layout providing the ideal backdrop for all manner of events and special occasions.
The room was named in honour of Lady Violet Bonham Carter and celebrates the achievements of Liberal women; and as well as the main portrait of Lady Violet herself, it includes a portrait of another influential Liberal peer, Baroness Nancy Seear, and a 1988 centenary plaque for the Women’s Liberal Federation.
Lady Violet was a lifelong Liberal campaigner, and the daughter of H. H. Asquith. In an age when there were few women politicians, Lady Violet was a determined, uncompromising, outspoken figure, and later in life she came to be regarded as a feminist icon. She lived in Downing Street for over a decade while her father was Chancellor and then Prime Minister, and after an early infatuation with her lifelong friend Winston Churchill, Violet Asquith married Sir Maurice Bonham Carter.
The jewel in the Club’s crown, especially in spring and summer, is surely its terrace. Unique in London, the National Liberal Club’s magnificent terrace overlooks Embankment Gardens and the River Thames with views towards the London Eye and Southbank. Shaded by enormous trees, which not only provide welcome shade but also reduce the traffic noise, the terrace is large enough to seat over a 100 people and offers a picturesque backdrop for weddings and events. Food and drink are served here all day, making it a tempting place to linger for several hours on a warm afternoon or evening.
Every New Year’s Eve, the Terrace comes into its own once more, as members and their guests enjoy a spectacular view of the Mayor of London’s annual firework display.
The Lawrence Robson room is the NLC’s Boardroom making it ideal for smaller corporate and business meetings. The primary feature of the room is the large solid wood table which comfortably seats up to 12 in traditional Boardroom style.
The Lawrence Robson Room is named in honour of Sir Lawrence Robson (1904-1982), an accountant and Liberal politician, who saved the club from closure during a particularly difficult period in the 1970s. Sir Lawrence was a founder of the accountancy firm Robson Rhodes (which subsequently merged into the present-day Grant Thornton), was a former President of the Liberal Party, and unsuccessfully stood for Parliament twice.
Works of art on display in the room include an oil portrait of Liberal Leader Sir Archibald Sinclair – a close friend and ally of Winston Churchill who served in his wartime Cabinet as Air Minister – and a pencil sketch of Prime Minister Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman.
As well as general reference works available to members in the Smoking Room, the National Liberal Club is home to London’s only specialist library on Liberal history, politics, biography and philosophy, including books, pamphlets and theses on the British Liberal tradition. Members may access the library at any time during the club’s opening hours by signing in for the keys from the front desk. Queries about the library – including requests from non-members to view material – should be directed to the club’s Librarian, Derek Mcauley, at dmca123@aol.com. Discover more about the NLC Library.
The National Liberal Club has a distinguished history in snooker, having hosted the first series of the BBC TV programme Pot Black, which first brought the game into public consciousness. Today’s Snooker Room is much smaller, and includes a notorious ‘tricky corner’, requiring the use of a shortened cue to negotiate an encroaching piece of wall. This gives the NLC team a slender home advantage that may account for its excellent record in the annual Inter-club tournament. Players of all standards are welcome, while those more competitively inclined may join in the club ladder as well as an annual knockout event.
The Club’s main staircase is the largest unsupported marble staircase in Europe and is built on the cantilever principle, with the marble base adorned with alabaster. It is one of the few parts of the Club that is not original, with Waterhouse’s main staircase having been destroyed by a bombing raid in 1941, and this magnificent replacement was completed in 1950.
In striving for an ‘unsupported’ structure, the present-day staircase went for a different design to the original, which had been flanked by marble pillars throughout. The original staircase was immortalised in Arthur Quiller-Couch’s 1918 novel Foe-Farrell, with a character cautioning that the lift should be preferred by late-night visitors after a heavy meal: ‘Don’t try the marble staircase—it’s winding and slippery at the edge.’
