London Steak and Cheese Dinner

Not many will remember the origins of the London Steak and Cheese Dinner, which was established as the end-of-year function of the London Luncheon Club that met monthly in a London pub. A 1978 edition in the OBA Section of the School Magazine stated:

OBs meet for beer and sandwiches on the last Tuesday of each month from 1.00pm onwards in the Stirrup Cup Bar of the Horseshoe in Tottenham Court Road. Any OB finding himself in the middle of London at that time is sure of a warm welcome at the Horseshoe from his fellow OBs.

I don’t know what we did wrong, but the monthly meetings moved on to the White Lion, St Giles High Street and then the Edgar Wallace, 40 Essex Street and probably others over the years. However, the monthly meetings died out, but the annual Steak and Cheese Dinner lived on.

This year, as in the last few years, the dinner took place in the Double Tree by Hilton, 92 Southampton Row, on Wednesday 7th December, organised by Vice-President Peter Willson (Co ’66). The Principal, Richard Backhouse, attended and gave an interesting speech on the development of the School. He made particular reference to the students’ use of IT and the planned build of the new Sixth Form Centre on the site of Wilson House, now demolished.

Twenty-one diners attended, and we were very pleased to welcome Niall Davies and Charles Pipe, both 2017 school leavers. A full list of attendees is at the end of this section.

Mike Horton (Sw ’64)