3-028-604 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Guards' Institute, Vauxhall-Bridge-Road [in south London]: the Reading-Room, 1869. Interior of '...the new building in Francis-street, Vauxhall-bridge-road,...which has been erected for the accommodation of the social club formed under the patronage of the officers of the Guards for the comfort and recreation of the soldiers...It has been joined by more than fifteen hundred members, who are accustomed to frequent it in the evenings, both on weekdays and Sundays, for reading, writing, and conversation, having also refreshments of a wholesome kind (beer and wine, but no ardent spirits) provided on economical terms. The games of chess, draughts, dominoes, bowls, skittles, billiards, and bagatelle, are played here with great spirit; there are popular lectures, occasionally, upon literary or scientific subjects; a concert every week, amateur theatricals, and two weekly dancing parties, one for the private soldiers, on Wednesdays, and one for the non-commissioned officers, on Fridays...[As well as the] library and reading-room, [there is a ball-room] and an amateur workshop, for the instruction of as many of the men as choose to learn the craft of a carpenter; there is also a tailors' workshop'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.