Royal Air Force Club

[BBadanov]

brakedwell: "It's a shame the Gremlin Club is no more. It opened during WW2 for RAF, Commonwealth and Allied Air Forces aircrew. The rooms were cheap, the food was good and the bar was open when all others were closed. Unfortunately it went out existence in the mid sixties."

No, not the mid 60s - I stayed at the Gremlin December 1970, having "indulged" on the VC10 from RAF Changi to Brize. In those days a lot of us Aussies, having done our tour in Vietnam, hitched down to Singapore to get the VC10. My fellow passenger on the way to UK (through Gan and Akrotiri) was an RAF WGDCR (Bacon I think?) who had just ferried out a Hunter for the new Singapore Air Defence Command. Then train to Paddington (I think) and fast black to the Gremlin. Met one of my mates there as soon as I walked in, then down to The Swan on Bayswater. The nearby Columbia Club was then a US officers' club which we could also use. Good days!!

I was member of the RAF Club during my RAF years and into retirement, but rather pointless now that I live on the other side of the world, as I often did run into unavailability when I was a member.