The Travellers’ Food Club, 1938
This was a piece I wrote for Petits Propos Culinaires 111 (2018) after finding, quite by chance, a copy of the 1938 guide on Abebooks. So far as I know, little attention has been paid to this pioneering organisation (pioneering for Britain, that is). Those of you wishing to subscribe to PPC should look at its website at https://prospectbooks.co.uk/
There’s a wandering apostrophe to settle before further advance. The outer cover of the book puts the word ‘traveller’ in the singular, but the title page has it plural. It makes more sense that it is plural, though most references in bibliographies and so forth will give the singular version.
The Travellers’ Food Club was founded in 1936 or 1937 by James R. White. Its aim was to have its members report on meals consumed in Britain (but not Ireland) and to produce a guide based on those reports. Purchase of the guide constituted membership of the club. No other subscription was required. No advertising by establishments was accepted. The club was non-profit-making.
The inspiration for the club was the Club des Sans-Club in France, founded in 1924 under the patronage of Auguste Escoffier. It too issued an annual guide, Les Auberges de France; membership was secured by purchase of the book; it accepted neither publicity nor sponsorship from entries to the guide although there were a few outside advertisers (often wines and spirits). The editor of the French guide, Paul Poulgy, was on the committee of the Travellers’ Club.
Readers will immediately recall the foundation of the Good Food Club by Raymond Postgate in 1949/50 with his articles in The Leader and then Lilliput. Again, the Club des Sans-Club was cited as inspiration; again, the members did the hard work and made the recommendations; again, membership of the club – once the first Good Food Guide was issued in 1951– was secured by purchase of the book; and once again, there was no financial or other link between the places reported on and the Guide itself. I have not found any reference by the GFG’s founding group to the Travellers’ Food Club and think this an omission. Of course, the GFG ignored accommodation, concentrated on the food and drink alone. But then, so did the TFC, even if more generous in its details of room charges and so forth.
I was alerted to the TFC’s existence by a mention in John Fothergill’s Confessions of an Innkeeper. A reference was to be expected, he was on the Advisory Committee. I was fortunate to locate a copy of the 1938 production in Kennys Bookstore in Maryland and Galway. Beyond the book itself, I have not yet succeeded in discovering much at all. Beyond a few prefatory comments, I shall restrict myself to reprinting the TFC’s own introduction. As will be seen from the text below, the issue of 1938 was not the first. There is an implication that something was put out in 1936, or perhaps merely that it was in that year that the club was mooted. Certainly there was a small pamphlet issued in 1937. The British Library holds a copy (but not a copy of the 1938 issue we discuss here). It is described as a ‘brochure’ in the BL catalogue and it had 28 pages.
There appeared the following report in The Times of 2 April 1937: ‘The Travellers' Food Club, which has just been formed, believes that there are to be found in England cooks and cooking as fine as any in the world, and is out to prove that the old joke about English cooking is without foundation. The aims of the club are to enable all who seek good food and pleasant surroundings to give unbiased advice to their fellow travellers as to where such things can be found and to encourage the innkeeper who labours to supply them, often unknown and lightly rewarded. A manual compiled from reports on hotels has just been published, in which there is given information about good hotels, hostelries, inns, and restaurants in this country, irrespective of the prices charged. The founder of the club, Mr. James White, states that he has searched Great Britain and found delightful cooking, frequently at little inns tucked away in hamlets. In a preface to the booklet it is pointed out that the prices on an English bill of fare are rarely a guide to the quality of the dishes described – “Only in England can a gastronome find himself delighted for half a crown and buy himself dyspepsia for a guinea.” The club is non-commercial, seeks to make no profit, and refuses hotel advertisements. Membership is obtained simply by buying the manual.’
The Director of the Travellers’ Food Club was one James R. White. He is also billed as the compiler of the 1938 Reports. The editor of those Reports is listed as Clement Fuller. The Secretary of the Club is identified as B.W. Greene. I have been unable to identify Messrs White and Greene but there is a chance that Clement Fuller (1907–1975) was a writer and painter who emigrated to the United States and worked in New York as a journalist and playwright after the War. The make-up of the Advisory Committee is definitely ‘show business’ and the creative side of London, so the identification is not beyond the realms of possibility.
The Advisory Committee consisted of Sir Harry Brittain, Julian Clifford, Miss Elizabeth Craig, John Fothergill, Clement Fuller, Lawrence (sic) Olivier, Paul Poulgy, Lady Millicent Tiarks, and William Walker. Sir Harry Brittain (1873–1974) was a Conservative MP and a journalist. He was a founder of the Pilgrims Society, an Anglo-American friendship group, and a promoter of closer ties with the Commonwealth, especially its press. Julian Clifford is unidentified, but there was a musician who conducted with Constant Lambert at Sadler’s Wells in the ’30s (not to be confused with a composer of the same name who died in 1921). Elizabeth Craig (1883–1980) was the successful writer of cookery books familiar to almost three generations. John Fothergill was the innkeeper, then of Market Harborough. Laurence Olivier was the actor, later Lord Olivier. Paul Poulgy was the then-director of Les Auberges de France from the Club des Sans-Club. If we believe the Bibliothèque nationale, he performed this role from 1933 to 1938. After the War, he was succeeded by O. Poulgy. Paul Poulgy was the author of a light romance La Fin de Monte-Carlo (1926) which was subsequently filmed in 1928, and another, La Femme sans volupté, le gai roman des amours qui nous frôlent (1930). He also wrote Tu seras joueur. Suivi d'un expose sur les tricheries pratiquées dans les maisons de jeux par H. X. Directeur de Casino (ca. 1926) which must have been a by-product of his first novel. The TFC report does state explicitly that it is ‘affiliated to the Club des Sans-Club of France.’ To complete our roster of the Committee, we have Lady Millicent Tiarks, so titled because she was the daughter of the Marquis of Headfort, who had been married to the merchant banker Henry Tiarks (1900–1995) from 1930 to 1935. The marriage had been ‘disastrous’, it was reported. And finally there was William Walker, who is so far unidentified.
In what follows, I have reprinted pages 3–19 of the Reports. The substantive text is only another 60 pages, with incidentals making the total page-count 100. The book, stapled, not sewn, measures 120mm x 178mm.
1936 1937 1938
In this introduction to the first of our Reports proper we propose to emulate a really skilful after-dinner speaker by saying what we have to say quickly.
First you will find innovations in this volume – the hotels have been listed in routes; in addition to the concession of free garage offered by a large number of hotels we now give you the opportunity of insuring your car on special terms – wider cover and lower premiums. These things are explained in full on other pages.
Second we would urge our members old and new, that they play their part actively and assist themselves and others. By sending frequent reports on the hotels they visit they not only insure that the Travellers’ Food Club will continue to be an efficient organisation supplying its members with complete information on British hotels, but they also do a great work in encouraging the good innkeeper at the expense of the bad and helping to raise the standard of cookery in this country. We would urge too that every member makes a great effort to publicise the work of the Club and help increase its membership. It will be understood that this, not being a commercial organisation, is dependent for its existence and efficient working upon the enthusiasm of its members.
Last, the sincere thanks of all members of the T.F.C. are due to the member of the committee, to the group of men and women who volunteered for the work of checking up on the hotels in their own counties and in fact to all members of the Club for the fine work which they have done, without which this book would have been impossible.
On behalf of all the other members of the Travellers’ Food Club we thank you. You who are reading this are both the evidence that and the reason why the T.F.C. is a success. It has in fact exceeded its founders’ most sanguine hopes.
That despite the inadequacy of the booklet which was the Club’s first publication, enlarged editions had twice to be reprinted within a few months; that instead of expected hundreds, more than two thousand men and women became members; that instead of expected patronage a – may we say it? – rather querulous opposition has been extended to us by organisations which regard themselves as rivals; most important of all – that more than 500 reports on hotels have been sent in by members is, we suggest, the plainest possible proof that the Englishman’s taste for food has so far been less uncaring than uncatered for; proof too that the Travellers’ Food Club must stay.
Clement Fuller.
WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT
A small group of Englishmen, sharing a conviction that English cooking was badly publicised and a desire to eat and live well, founded the T.F.C.
The Club’s aim may be said to be twofold –(1) to enable all who seek good food and pleasant surroundings to give unbiased advice to their fellow travellers as to where these can be found; (2) to encourage the innkeeper who labours to supply them, often unknown and lightly rewarded.
More completely perhaps than any other club, the T.F.C. is run by the members for the members.
Its sole reason for being is the sharing of information. Its sole activity is the compilation and circulation each year of its Reports.
To join the Club you have only to buy the current year’s book of reports.
Club not run for profit
From among the first members of the T.F.C. a few distinguished people have consented to act as an advisory committee. Their experience, knowledge and good taste will prove of benefit to all members and will greatly assist the director in the organisation of the club.
The Traveller’s Food Club is neither subsidised nor run for profit. It accepts no advertisement nor remuneration from innkeepers.
This is not a guide book nor a recital of any man’s favourite hostelries. It is the accumulated reports received during 1937 from the members of the Travellers’ Food Club
Membership entails a duty
The buyer of this booklet automatically becomes a member of the T.F.C. for this year and entitled to the privileges of the Club. It is hoped that he or she will regard it as a duty to fellow members to send in reports on notable inns. hotels and restaurants visited during 1938 whether these are listed by the Club or not. Unless bad reports – where deserved – are sent in as well as good, this book will fail in its object.
The names of all establishments thus recommended will, after investigation, be included in the 1939 Reports of the Club.
Complaints will be investigated
All comments from members will be noted. Adverse criticism of any establishment listed in this book or its successors will be immediately investigated. In all cases where the complaint is justified and cause continuing, the establishment concerned will be excluded from further mention.
It must be made clear however, that the Reports of the T.F.C. contain appreciations of only those houses reported by members during the previous season.
Should no recommendation, for instance, be received by October 1st next, concerning any hotel listed in this present booklet that establishment will not be included in the 1939 Reports.
Where there is a change of management or policy, the outcome of which is not yet apparent, the Report published of the house concerned will state this fact and add only the prices charged.
The members of the T.F.C. have it in their power to improve the standard of English hotels and inns, by increasing the prosperity of the deserving innkeeper at the expense of the undeserving.
They have it in their power to enforce the supplying of their demands; for this is the first organisation of its kind in this country which has no interests whatsoever vested in the catering trade.
It can be no more than just that the choice of tune be no longer left entirely to the piper.
Importance of being silent
Use your power, therefore, wherever it is right to do so, with a full sense of your responsibility.
Reward merit by sending in good reports to the Secretary; counter inefficiency, bad cooking, bad manners, dishonesty or overcharging, by sending in reports of a different sort.
The T.F.C. will confine themselves to the proper allocation of their praise. In all cases omission will be preferred to condemnation.
Bear this fact in mind; read carefully the classification of words used (pp. 17, 19). From the descriptions following you will then be able to glean all essential information about each house.
The majority of the hotels listed are, we believe, very good; but we promise nothing: a change of management or the departure of a chef can make too great a difference to the amenities any hostelry can offer.
We have mentioned two or three large hotels. In subsequent reports such others will be included as are recommended, except those which are, in their own judgement, too important to need praise.
The benefits of membership
Nevertheless – until we are over-ruled by our members – we shall take greater delight in the discovery of a small unknown inn where the food is simple but good, than in the cataloguing of a de luxe snob establishment which no idiot with a full pocket can hope to avoid..
If you accept your fellow members’ advice and visit the hotels named here, do so as a member of the Travellers’ Food Club. Not merely because some of them offer you a free garage but because in no other way can you derive maximum benefit from your membership.
If you are staying the night display this booklet on your arrival. Better still, write “T.F.C.” after your name in the visitors’ book. If you stop for a meal only, put this sign of your membership on your table before ordering your meal.
Many of the hotels recommended offer free garage to members of the T.F.C. This concession is intended for travellers, and cannot of course be expected by those remaining in the same hostelry for more than three nights.
It can be claimed only by motorists whose cars bear of the windscreen the T.F.C. badge which will be sent to members who complete the form on page 91.
A real concession
This is a very real concession. To assess it at its lowest it means that all motorists will be able to save to price of membership in a few nights.
We feel that this gesture from the innkeeper whose house has already achieved inclusion in these reports will not be unappreciated by members.
THE CLUB DES SANS-CLUB
by
Felix de Grand’combe.
For sensible people who stop to think about what they eat, the Traveller’s Food Club was created. It owes its inspiration to the Club des Sans-Club, which is now regarded as one of the national institutions of France. Deservedly so.
Ever since the Roman Conquest, the French have specialized in good food and fine wines. What is perhaps most surprising is that they have so long trusted instinct to discover for them where these were to be obtained. They do so no longer. They rely on the Club’s yearbook.
This manual, like that of the T.F.C., contains appreciations of many hundreds of restaurants all over the country with hints as to what is best to order at each and when. No one with an appreciation of good living – no matter what his income – should enter France without this invaluable volume.
Obtainable from all booksellers in France or from Hachette’s, William IV Street, London, W.C. 2.
LOOK IN THE MIRROR
Here is an innkeeper’s view of the T.F.C.:—
The formation of the T.F.C. was the most cheering piece of news of 1937 from the point of view of the intelligent innkeeper. It is to be hoped that the original members of the past year have fulfilled their self-imposed obligation of reporting to the Club on all hotels and inns visited on their travels.
Only in this way can the Club flourish and grow larger and stronger every year and thus be in a position to exert the very real influence for the betterment of our country inns.
By these I mean the taverns and the smaller hotels scattered about the country which rely for their existence chiefly on motorists, tourists and holiday visitors requiring food, drink and lodging.
Others have other objects
For many years now the A.A. and the R.A.C. have published lists of classified hotels. These are most useful to motorists, but the classification cannot always be relied on as it is physically impossible for the Area Secretaries to inspect and sample the fare of every appointed hotel in their district even once a year.
When the Wine and Food Society was formed in 1933 their chief object was to raise the standard of cooking in this country “as a means to a greater number of visitors spending their holidays in England than will ever be tempted to do so, so long as the present deplorable state of the majority of our country inns exists.”
Members were to visit the inns and hotels in their district and try to interest the proprietors in the improvement of the standard of catering, and giving sound wines at fair prices.
A list of approved inns was then to be compiled. This unfortunately has not been done.
Hence the immense field and wonderful opportunities that are open to the members of the T.F.C. to compose their own list of favourite “spots” for their mutual benefit – and for innkeepers to assist in that work by proving worthy of inclusion in the Report.
Here today but gone …
There are doubtless many hotels so well-placed that they can afford to disregard the complaints of clients – “They will pass this way but once; let us fleece them whilst we are at it. There will be others tomorrow.”
Not all of us, however, are in this carefree and somewhat inglorious position, and it is our object and pride to build up a regular clientele who will always come to our house when they are near and indeed will go several miles out of their way to have a meal or stay the night with us.
The renaissance of country hotels and inns in England has been brought about by the advent of motoring, after many of them almost ceased to exist as a result of the passing of the stage-coach and the development of the railway system in the nineteenth century.
It is to motorists, therefore, that the country innkeeper must look for his custom, and his policy should be dictated by their needs.
A great encouragement
To the intelligent innkeeper the T.F.C. should be a source of great encouragement, hoping as he does that the members are discerning people who appreciate thought and care in the planning of meals, the preparation of good, simple food, the provision of pleasant and comfortable rooms, and scrupulous cleanliness.
I have always held that the essentials of the small hotel should be Courtesy, Comfort, Cleanliness and good Cooking, and that its aim should be to create its own atmosphere rather than give itself airs. “The keynote of the large hotel is service, that of the inn, hospitality.”
So let us, as country innkeepers, concentrate on the essentials of a personal welcome, clean and comfortable accommodation with adequate modern convenience, and good well-cooked food, decently served.
Willing service is best
This all sounds fairly simple, but running a country hotel is not an easy job, and requires the unremitting attention of the landlord and his wife.
The hours of work are long, generally fourteen a day, and if visitors will bear that fact in mind they will perhaps make allowances for little things that go wrong and show consideration towards the management and staff. It makes all the difference between willing and grudging service.
Co-operation is the thing
I should like to quote from the introductory page of the Austin Handbook as I feel that it is really very well put:—
When a motoring party on tour proposes to spend the night at a certain place, it gives the hotel people an infinitely better chance to do justice to their guests if a wire is sent in advance of their arrival.
The same applies to meals, especially in the case of hotels off the beaten track, where the normal amount of tourist custom is not enough to justify the provision of a full course luncheon and dinner for chance callers on every day of the week.
If you arrive without warning and find yourselves compelled to take pot-luck, don’t blame the hotel people for your own lack of foresight. If you prefer a comparatively small, quiet and economical hotel off the beaten track, don’t expect to find a large staff of porters, maids and waitresses lined up in the hall ready for instant service, … Mutual consideration and a bit of give and take will go far to cut out any possible ground for complaint.
If members will act of this sound advice I feel sure they will not only find themselves amply repaid, but also help to build up a feeling of mutual interest and co-operation between themselves and the innkeepers.
For this is the foundation on which the T.F.C. must rest.
The Crown and Thistle, J.B. Pennefather.
Abingdon. 23/1/38.
KEY WORDS
Certain keywords are used in the descriptions of hotels contained in following pages. In each case they should be taken as bearing the precise meanings set out here:—
FOOD
PLAIN COOKING This term indicates an hotel or restaurant which will provide you with simple food carefully prepared but limited in its variety.
GOOD COOKING By this is meant the ordinary standard of excellence which the traveller is entitled to expect from establishments which set out to attract passing motorists.
CUISINE We use this word where the food will satisfy the traveller who demands fare more elaborate and varied than that provided by restaurants with “Good Cooking.”
GOOD CUISINE Is used to describe establishments which provide the possessor of a discerning palate. Here the traveller may expect a well selected cellar.
In certain cases we have preferred the innkeeper’s “Good Plain Cooking,” or “First Class English Food” as being a more exact description than our own “Cuisine.”
ACCOMMODATION
INN This word is used to describe an establishment where clean and adequate rooms are available and there is a reasonable degree of comfort. Some, but probably not all, of the bedrooms will have running hot and cold water.
HOSTELRY Here the surroundings will be sufficiently comfortable to please the majority of travellers. All bedrooms will be provided with hot and cold water and there will be a sufficient number of bathrooms.
HOTEL This word is used to indicate that you will find all those comforts which should be available in every modern large hotel.
Prices quoted for accommodation are the minimum charges for a room, bath and full breakfast, but most of the hotels will supply a light breakfast at a proportionate saving.
In certain main-road towns, hotels believed to be good, though members have not recently reported on them, have been named. These will be recognised by the fact that no descriptions follow the names. Up-to-date reports on these establishments would benefit members.
Names of those inns which were listed in 1937 and have again been recommended are preceded by the figure “2”. A few of these which have earned exceptional praise are marked with a star.
******
The starred places in the lists which follow are few and far between. They comprise:
Greta Bridge, Yorkshire: The Morritt Arms
Colchester, Essex: The George
Odiham, Hamphsire: The George
Ilminster, Somerset: The George
Lifton, Devon: The Arundell Arms
North Aston, Oxfordshire: The Fox
Dulverton, Somerset: Woodcote
Minster Lovell, Oxfordshire: The Old Swan
Broadway, Worcestershire: Broadway Hotel
Abingdon, Berkshire: The Crown and Thistle
Penrhyndeudraeth, Merioneth: Portmeirion
London: Albert’s, Beak Street
Escargot, Greek Street
Leoni’s Quo Vadis, Dean Street
Cervantes, Old Compton Street