For three years during the Second World War, Dr. Johnson’s House played the unexpected role of a social club for local firemen. In the first place, it provided them with basics like food and a place to sit down or sleep (some had no home to go back to after the air-raids). Yet above all, the House was a lively spot where the men enjoyed lectures on the arts and classical concerts, as well as a warehouse for the wooden toys they crafted for orphans.
During the Blitz
All this activity was due partly to chance and partly to the great initiative of the House’s guardian, Phyllis Rowell. Already at the start of the War, Rowell had gained permission to give drinks and shelter to the seriously under-resourced Auxiliary Firemen (she had stumbled on a group of them, worse for wear, by the house). During the Blitz, her help extended to a regular canteen, open day and night and stocked by American parcels. Now the firemen, Rowell, and her daughter Betty were busy making the building safe and habitable after damage by bombs and fires. A replacement metal roof that kept blowing away, soaked carpets that turned to ice, patchy gas and electric - these were the order of the day. Yet the House was actually quite lucky and is one of the few seventeenth century buildings left in the area. The story of its near escapes, as well as the history of the firemen’s club and a vivid picture of the City of London in wartime, are recounted in Rowell’s pamphlet, Dr Johnson’s House during the War.
The firemen’s club began in earnest after the Blitz, conceived by the House’s owner Lord Harmsworth. It was needed, as firemen were not allowed to use the other service clubs and canteens. They often worked under horrible conditions - some were sleeping under bridges. Money for the club was raised from private donors and City corporations. It was able to offer couches, beds, ‘real’ coffee, and sandwiches. Rowell for her part brought the men woollens (not provided by the service!) from abroad, due to her work with the English Speaking Union.
Firemen's Arts Club
So, how might you spend an evening at the Firemen’s Arts Club, as it was officially called? Some of the firemen had been in the London Symphony Orchestra: they formed a string quartet and played concerts, one man (William Reed) even writing a piece for the house. There was also a gramophone, used to accompany lectures on the history of music. Eminent people in the arts talked on literature, ballet, and theatre. According to Harry Stone (a wartime fireman and author of the pamphlet Dr Johnson’s House and the National Fire Service during the War), one of the best talks was Stephen Spender on Norse myths - the goriness appealed to their wartime sensibilities and they liked hearing new versions of the German myths used in enemy propaganda.
The Club closed in 1944, when the building suffered too severe damage from a V2 rocket explosion. It was not repaired until the late 1940s.
Fell in Love and Married
Two more things are worth mentioning about this episode. The first is that Betty and a young fireman, Edward Gathergood, fell in love and married - they held the reception in the House. Rowell recalls Gathergood helping her and Betty prepare for a brutal bombing campaign near the end of the war. He also gave servicemen historical tours of the area - the sort of tour you can still go on today.
Secondly, some of the men gifted a special wooden model to the house, to say thank you for letting them to store their charitable toys there. It shows them busy in their workshop, amid a mini rocking house and other creations. Still in the house, this scene is a fitting symbol for all the joyful activity that happened here during the war.
Isaac Lucia
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