Moncrieff's Bar Opened

Last night was the official opening of the newly refurbished cafe bar at the Press Gallery in the Palace of Westminster, which is named Moncrieff's, in honour of my Dad, Chris Moncrieff, who has worked as a reporter there for 40+ years.

The proceedings were kicked of by the Chairman of the Press Gallery, Brian Shallcross, and then the Speaker, Michael Martin, said a few words. Then it was Dad's turn, who began by remarking: 'This bar must be unique in history in that is has been formally opened by a teetotaller, and named after a man who hasn't had strong drink for a quarter of a century. Despite that I have every confidence that this bar will live up to the disreputable reputation of its predecessors.'

He went on to recount some of the most famous feats of drinking and debauchery to have occurred in the previous incarnations of the Press Gallery bar. You can hear his full speech here.

Above the bar itself, there is an illuminated etching of my dad, in his customary attitude walking along with notebook in hand. It's quite clever, I think, how the designer has - with just a few well placed lines - managed to capture the rather unusual way that suits tend to hang on him.

There was an article about all this in the Independent a couple of weeks ago - here.

My other photos of this event are here. Sorry, they're pretty terrible.

18/12/2007 Edit: another article and better photo here.