English Chess Forum

Would anyone like to share memories of attempting to play chess at the St. Bride Institute?

I can vaguely recall a smoke filled room that you could not see from one side to the other filled by elderly gentlemen smoking and attempting to blow that smoke in the eyes of their junior opponents such as myself.

Getting home I was forced to take a bath and change clothes to get rid of the smell.

St. Bride's struck me with a feeling of chess antiquity in an agreeable way, despite the smoke there appearing to be the same as in Victorian times.

The venue was sometimes used for county matches, but, having said that, I can only recall with certainty one game I played there, between Middlesex and Berkshire, on 27 October 1973. I was on board 5 against J. Speelman, so I will leave you to work out the result of our game. Middlesex won 11-8, with one adjudication to follow.

Yes, I'm sure plenty of us of a certain age will remember it well. I was less bothered by the smoke, being an ex-smoker myself, but found its (metaphorical) atmosphere almost inspiring. Everything was so old and dilapidated, including the sets and big, old wooden clocks, that you could imagine that Steinitz and Zukertort had only just popped out of the room.

Browsing online, I have just found a photo of it in 1963 - 7 January 1963, to be precise, with Kotov giving a simul to juniors...
From the SCCU Bulletin, January 1963:

SCCU Bulletin, January 1963 wrote:SIMULTANEOUS EXHIBITION BY A. KOTOV; Following his success at Hastings the Russian Grandmaster A. Kotov
on Monday January 7th gave a simultaneous exhibition at St. Bride's Institute against 24 London Junior Competitors from the London Junior Championship Tournament. He whipped round at an amazing speed and in under 3 hours had won 13, drawn 10 and lost 1. The boys who drew were C. Waites, D.N. Levy, J.R. Mitchell, D.C. Rowe, R.D. Keene, N.J. Patterson, A.N. Brilliant, P.H. Collins, H. Waldman & R.E. Sage, The sole winner after a hard end-game struggle was W.R. Hartston. It was a delightful afternoon's entertainment and not likely to be forgotten in a hurry by those of us who were privileged to be present.

As regards identification of the people in the photo: Bob Wade is the easiest to pick out, standing at the back. But I don't recognise the chap with the clipboard standing next to him. I can't identify any of the four players immediately in front of Wade and the other adult.

I think the player in play opposite Kotov is Kenny Harman. If I have identified him correctly, the player on his right, nearest the door and writing on his scoresheet is, I think, Michael V Lambshire. Two to the right of Harman - Hartston? That's all I've got, I'm afraid.

I have a feeling St. Bride was used as a home venue for Middlesex as I'm pretty sure I played there again in the early 1980s in the Middlesex U-21 Team Championship.

Pretty sure I was selected by Mike Wills who ran the London Central YMCA (CentYMCA) club very successfully.

Another shot of the same simul, from a different angle. This time another player can be identified easily - one R D Keene, with his briefcase on the floor next to him. However, my earlier tentative ID of Hartston is looking less credible. I'm beginning to wonder if it's David Levy... not sure.

One surprise (for me) is the existence of that side door on the left. I don't ever remember it being used.

The man with the clipboard: could it be Owen Hindle?

John Townsend wrote: ↑

Mon May 04, 2026 12:34 pm

The man with the clipboard: could it be Owen Hindle?

I think you're right John:
https://www.alamy.com/owen-hindle-at-40 ... 31662.html

Of course, we have chatted about St Bride's here more than once. Here's a link with another older photo of the famous upstairs room...

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=7657

That third photo John linked to had an array of coats and hats hanging up. Unlike in the simultaneous display photos. In the second photo, behind Keene, is the "T. R. Dawson memorial bookcase". One wonders what happened to that. Would love to know also what the photos on the wall were showing. Maybe those who were there in years gone by might remember?

I've noticed that the formal name for it appears to be

St Bride Foundation Institute

https://www.londonremembers.com/memoria ... -institute


rather than St. Bride's. Am I missing something obvious?

Back in the day, the London Junior Championships used to have a two game play off, which had to be completed before the traditional simul with the Hastings GM visitors. One year, 1972 maybe, I tied with Nick Benjamin and the play off was to be held, of course, at St Brides on a Saturday afternoon. At the top, clearly. After pressing in a long first game, which I only drew, after a few moves of game 2, the caretaker announced that he was closing in half an hour, come what may.

So my father left St Brides in search of an alternative, and the only place open was a Wimpy Bar on New Bridge Street. He managed to persuade the manager to let us sit in a corner to finish the game, so we stopped, took the set and clock and moved there to complete the game, which I duly lost.

But overall I have fond memories of the many times I played there.

John Upham wrote: ↑

Mon May 04, 2026 4:47 pm

I've noticed that the formal name for it appears to be

St Bride Foundation Institute

https://www.londonremembers.com/memoria ... -institute


rather than St. Bride's. Am I missing something obvious?

Yes, I noticed that. That's the formal name (perhaps to distinguish it from the church), but it was always known to chess players as St Bride's. Saying it without the final 's' would just be weird.

Simon Brown wrote: ↑

Mon May 04, 2026 5:46 pm

Back in the day, the London Junior Championships used to have a two game play off, which had to be completed before the traditional simul with the Hastings GM visitors. One year, 1972 maybe, I tied with Nick Benjamin and the play off was to be held, of course, at St Brides on a Saturday afternoon. At the top, clearly. After pressing in a long first game, which I only drew, after a few moves of game 2, the caretaker announced that he was closing in half an hour, come what may.

So my father left St Brides in search of an alternative, and the only place open was a Wimpy Bar on New Bridge Street. He managed to persuade the manager to let us sit in a corner to finish the game, so we stopped, took the set and clock and moved there to complete the game, which I duly lost.

But overall I have fond memories of the many times I played there.

Great story, Simon. It prompted me to search for the word 'caretaker' in the forum's search field and it produced some gems, including a contribution from Leonard Barden in 2009 which also celebrates (if that is the right word) St Bride's caretaker(s), and a similar story to Simon's from Graham Borrowdale telling how some Maidenhead players, evicted from the premises by a caretaker, finished the game on a board placed on a car bonnet.

The phenomenon of the caretaker terminating play persisted after the London League moved from St Bride's to Bishopsgate (an equally sullen hall, as I recall). There the caretaker was accompanied by a large dog which let out heart-rending howls when players were trying to play their sealed moves. Whether the caretaker trained the animal to do this or whether the dog somehow picked up on the accumulated tension in the room is not known. When I first saw the Filch character in a Harry Potter film I was reminded of the Bishopsgate caretaker (yes, I know Filch's animal companion was a cat, not a dog).

I only went to St. Bride's a few times because Athenaeum chess club in the early 1970s used to play at home in a large basement room of a cinema at or near Leicester Square. We only played away to London University (in alternate seasons) and Metropolitan chess club.
At that time Metropolitan were based in St Bride's and I think other London league matches between neutrals may have been played there.
About March 1973 I lost to Jonathan Speelman at St Bride's in a Kent v Middlesex match.
The first time I played there would have been a Friday evening in the Spring of 1967 for a joint Oxford and Cambridge team against Metropolitan.
The varsity match for which I was Oxford's first reserve was the next day.
In the early 20th century it used to be a regular thing for joint Oxbridge teams to have a week in London playing various clubs but this match in 1967 was maybe the last vestige of it. Does anyone know?

Tim Harding wrote: ↑

Mon May 04, 2026 6:48 pm

The first time I played there would have been a Friday evening in the Spring of 1967 for a joint Oxford and Cambridge team against Metropolitan.
The varsity match for which I was Oxford's first reserve was the next day.
In the early 20th century it used to be a regular thing for joint Oxbridge teams to have a week in London playing various clubs but this match in 1967 was maybe the last vestige of it. Does anyone know?

Very interesting, Tim. The last reference I had found for the continued existence of the traditional 'universities week' when the Oxford and Cambridge teams would play London clubs, either separately or as a joint team, often supplemented by alumni, was in 1959, so you have produced evidence that it carried on into the 1960s. I shall make a note of that on the 1967 Varsity match BritBase page. The 1968 and 1969 matches were also held in London but thereafter the Varsity match migrated to Cambridge and Oxford alternately for a while, which probably ended the tradition if it hadn't already ended earlier.