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Chiswick. The club is open Monday to Friday from 1-5 p.m. and there is an
organiser in attendance. The old people are enrolled as members at their first
attendance, membership costs only one penny per week, and there are 250 names
on the register. The members can visit every day, if they wish, for rest room
or reading room facilities, or just to meet their friends and talk, but many
social occasions are provided for them in the way of concerts, whist drives,
etc. A television set is installed in the lounge, and a radiogram in the concert
hall. Light refreshments are available. This club also arranges summer outings
(of which there were three in 1959) and an annual Christmas party. In 1959 a
free invitation for a theatre visit was accepted by a large number of members
and there were some additional facilities for entertainment at a cheap price
arranged during the Christmas season.
Through this club the members are also able to obtain information about
the special services at reduced rates which are available within the Borough for
them, such as laundry, shoe repairs and hairdressing, and they can be given advice
on any difficulties that occur in their private lives. Members living alone are
encouraged to make use of the S.O.S. card scheme, and have the card ready and
completed with personal details for window display should an emergency occur.
This is the only club premises open daily for the use of old age pensioners
but there are other clubs meeting in different parts of the Borough once a week
to which mobile old age pensioners become attached as members, for social and
recreational purposes.
Brentford Old Folks Social Club
This club meets every Wednesday 1.30 p.m. - 5 p.m. and has 150 members.
The meetings are social with periodic visiting entertainers. There are 3 or 4
summer outings, a free tea once per month and two annual parties.
Old Age Pensions Association (Brentford Branch)
This association has a membership of 65 with an average attendance of about
50 at each weekly meeting which is of a social nature. Two free outings per
year, annual tea and a Christmas dinner are held.
Old Age Pensions Association (Chiswick Branch)
This association has a membership of 140, and meets weekly for social purposes
with guest entertainers. A free annual outing and Christmas Tea Party are
held.
Other Societies
Several of the societies whose functions are classified under WelfareGeneral
contribute to a very considerable extent to the Welfare of the Elderly,
i.e. the British Red Cross Association, the St.John Ambulance Brigade, the Blind
Club, the Club for the Hard of Hearing, the Chiswick Mission (which maintains
two houses in Chiswick in which aged persons can rent rooms at a nominal figure
i.e. 8/- to 10/- per week inclusive of gas and electricity for cooking and
lighting and whose Superintendent does much visiting amongst old people) and
the two Philanthropic Societies.
Slipper Baths
Under the scheme for the provision at the reduced rates (2d. per bath) of
slipper baths for old people at the Public Baths Establishments, 2,697 baths
were taken in Chiswick and 1,005 in Brentford. The figure for Chiswick was
slightly greater but that for Brentford increased by nearly 40% over the figure
in 1958.
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