Fifty years of warm hospitality - Imperial's Union bar celebrates its half century

Cornerstone of College life marks a major milestone - News - 12 January 2007

Friday 12 January 2007
By Naomi Weston

A favourite meeting point for Imperial students, staff and lecturers plus members of the public is today celebrating its 50th anniversary. The Union bar, sited in Beit Quad on Prince Consort Road, is a hub of College life frequently used by many of the Union’s clubs and societies for their regular social meetings.

Today's anniversary celebrates 50 years of the Union bar as it is known today, following its reopening in January 1957 after major refurbishments.

“The bar has hardly changed since its refurbishment with the same original wood panelling”, explains Stuart Williamson, Union Trading Manager. “We have kept the bar in its original décor and pride ourselves on the traditional pub feel we have here.”

Its history dates back to 1911 when the original bar opened. Packed with trophies and plaques and the famous collection of pewter tankards, the bar is a living record of life at the College. The tankards, donated by the founding members of societies and often dating back 80 years, are all individually engraved with the names of previous Sabbatical officers, club officers and sports personalities. They are still used today by many of the alumni groups.

These include members of Chaps, a social networking group of the Royal School of Mines, who meet up in the bar every Friday wearing their traditional chocolate brown and duck egg blue ties. They are joined by the 22 club, from the Royal College of Science, and Links, from the City and Guilds College, which also regularly meet up in the bar.

To mark the 50th anniversary, the Union bar served birthday cake and opened a visitors book for students and staff which will be kept to remember the event.

Explaining the bar's enduring popularity, Jon Matthews, Deputy President for Finance and Services, says: “The Union bar has a superb atmosphere and serves proper real ale - it feels more like a pub than a bar.”