8 Chesterfield Gardens, London

8 Chesterfield Gardens, London

Internationalism thrived in public places but also had to adapt to the political and social geographies of the spaces in which it manifested. In London this included the private spaces of ‘Clubland’, the gentleman’s clubs which clustered around the Round Table Conference venue of St James’s Palace. Prestigious clubs issued temporary membership to the more famous delegates, especially the wealthy Princes. While the Maharaja of Bikaner was offered membership of clubs ranging from the Athenaeum to the International Sportsmen’s Club, other delegates were met with indifference, or racial hostility (the Indian Christian delegate Dr SK Datta and his wife were turned away from 24 central London hotels, who claimed they had to take the ‘views’ of their American and British colonial clientele in to account). For such delegates a club equivalent was established in Mayfair, at which they could sleep, host parties, and retire after a long day’s work. Indian chefs were provided from Veerasawmys, as was an amply stocked bar, to serve delegates during the long winter evenings and cold weekends. At the end of the second session of the conference in December 1931 a joint letter was issued to the two Social Secretaries, who ran the club, suggesting their efforts had ‘enabled all of us to come into close contact with each other and understand one another'.

The Illustrated Weekly of India, 8th November 1930 / © British Library Board, System Number 008625880