“Of all the First World War sites I’ve visited, Talbot House is the most evocative, yet most folk I know have never heard of it,” said William Cook in The Telegraph.
Located in Poperinge, a market town in rural Flanders, it was the unique creation of two British army chaplains, Neville Talbot and Philip “Tubby” Clayton, who wanted to offer soldiers “a more wholesome form of rest and recuperation” than visits to bars and brothels. In 1915, they rented a townhouse from a Belgian family, and turned it into an “Every Man’s Club – a cross between a gentleman’s club and a traditional vicarage”. Here, soldiers could play chess, billiards or ping-pong, borrow a book, or enjoy a song at the piano, escaping for a while from “the horrors of the Western Front”.
The house was named in memory of Neville’s brother, Gilbert Talbot, who had died in action earlier in 1915. It was “quaint and cosy” and “quintessentially British”, a “home from home” for the Tommies who visited. There was a parrot that spoke fluent Welsh, and a walled garden with a sign that read “Come into the garden, and forget about the war”. Another sign, at the front door, read “All rank abandon ye who enter here” – a “revolutionary” instruction in an era when officers and men were “strictly segregated”. And there was a rudimentary chapel in the attic, with a carpenter’s bench for an altar, where many men attended services, though this wasn’t compulsory “or even actively encouraged”.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The house has been “a happy place of pilgrimage and sanctuary” since it was opened to the public in 1931 – it’s fascinating and “moving”, well-maintained, and full of mementoes from the Great War. Guests can even stay overnight – an experience I found “supremely peaceful – like staying in the family home of an old, familiar friend”. And there are many other wartime sites nearby, including the battlefield of Ypres, and Ypres itself, a “handsome” city where big crowds attend the Last Post ceremony at the Menin Gate every night.
-
The best food books of 2025The Week Recommends From mouthwatering recipes to insightful essays, these colourful books will both inspire and entertain
-
Art that made the news in 2025The Explainer From a short-lived Banksy mural to an Egyptian statue dating back three millennia
-
Nine best TV shows of the yearThe Week Recommends From Adolescence to Amandaland
-
Winter holidays in the snow and sunThe Week Recommends Escape the dark, cold days with the perfect getaway
-
The best homes of the yearFeature Featuring a former helicopter engine repair workshop in Washington, D.C. and high-rise living in San Francisco
-
Critics’ choice: The year’s top 10 moviesFeature ‘One Battle After Another’ and ‘It Was Just an Accident’ stand out
-
A luxury walking tour in Western AustraliaThe Week Recommends Walk through an ‘ancient forest’ and listen to the ‘gentle hushing’ of the upper canopy
-
Joanna Trollope: novelist who had a No. 1 bestseller with The Rector’s WifeIn the Spotlight Trollope found fame with intelligent novels about the dramas and dilemmas of modern women
