A commoner enjoys a house red and a stately lunch at a rare open day at the Peers’ Dining Room at Britain’s House of Lords
- The House of Lords opens its Peers’ Dining Room for the public for lunch and dinner for a few days each year, and this writer snagged a reservation
- The three-course, US$67 meal includes Scottish smoked salmon and Herefordshire beef, and guests exit past the gift shop
I’m sitting on a red leather chair bearing a gold portcullis motif in a room with a wood panelled ceiling, stained-glass windows and 19th-century wallpaper. Portraits of bewigged grandees stare down as I order a glass of House of Lords claret and peruse the lunch menu.
I’m in the Peers’ Dining Room at the House of Lords, London for one of its rare Public Dining Experiences.
The Dining Room is open to the paying public for just a handful of days a year when peers – members of the House of Lords, one of the two chambers that constitute Britain’s parliament – are on a break. And it’s very popular – apparently when bookings opened online this time, the three lunches and one dinner sold out within minutes.
An hour earlier, I arrived at the visitor’s entrance, opposite Westminster Abbey, and, after clearing airport-style security, was told to “walk through Westminster Hall, turn left and go straight to the end”.
The reality, though, is rather awesome – you won’t want to rush it.
