FIREMEN'S CENTRE

Auckland Star, Volume LXXII, Issue 286, 3 December 1941, Page 13

FIREMEN'S CENTRE

DR. JOHNSON'S HOUSE HOSPITALITY CARRIED ON Dr. Johnson's house in Gough Square, blitzed last spring, but still standing, has been lent free to London firemen as a rest centre for the duration of the war. To them, and to the sound workmanship of its eighteenth century builders, the house owes its continued existence. The doctor's house was always a centre of hospitality and tea-drink-ing, and its traditions have been carried on in an adjoining cottage occupied by Mrs. Rowell, its curator. Here, sinee the beginning of the war. firemen have been given tea and cigarettes. Mrs. Rowell is organising the new scheme in Johnson's house. There will be reading and writing rooms and a reception room where firemen can meet wives and friends. Twice a week a legal representative will attend to act as advice bureau. Funds, however, are still needed to complete the furnishing. The remains of a Dresden tea service, from which Mrs. Thrale is said to have dispensed thirty cups of tea to Dr. Johnson on one occasion, were saved from the fire, and the first visitors to this "firemen's rendezvous" drank tea- from a fine modern silver teapot presented bv the men in gratitude for Mr.i Rowell's attentions during the last two years.