CSSC Sports and Leisure
Chadwick Street, London SW1
020 7976 7649

Tucked away in the heart of Victoria, a stone’s throw from a number of departmental buildings, is the Civil Service Sports Club – an easier moniker for what is officially known as CSSC Sports and Leisure.

A surprising number of civil servants have not heard of the club, according to its manager, though it’s been around for 100 years. Perhaps they confuse it with the Civil Service Club in Great Scotland Yard, or perhaps they simply have never come across it. Because when I say ‘tucked away’, I really mean tucked away – you’ll be half way down Chadwick Street and staring at a dead end before you realise that you have made it to your destination.

Around 23,000 people working in London have managed to make it to the door; nationally, there are some 130,000 members. Not all are civil servants, as the employees of several other organisations – including government suppliers, Royal Mail, BT and Metropolitan Police – are also eligible for membership.

On a Monday lunchtime, a steady stream of members were arriving for everything from a game of snooker to a half-hour gym session, and in the workaday bar and restaurant, the biggest table was taken up by Met officers taking a break from baton training.

The menu in the bar and restaurant, which is also open in the early evening, contains standard pub grub. Jacket potatoes began at £2.50 and bangers and mash, at £5.15, was the most expensive thing on the menu. The drinks are also cheaper than you would find in any pub in the surrounding streets, so for members the CSSC offers a haven from W1 prices. My beef in black bean sauce with rice, from that day’s specials menu, arrived in the kind of generous portion that you’d find in a subsidised office canteen, not the cost-conscious smattering offered in many gourmet pubs. There was an abundance of meat, but actually too few vegetables – even for a confirmed carnivore such as myself – and the black bean sauce didn’t kick quite hard enough for my tastes.

No gourmet meal, then, but cheap, tasty and filling. And there were some lovely-sounding puddings – reminiscent of school dinners, in an entirely good way – which I didn’t dare try, for fear of falling asleep as soon as I got back to my desk.

In reality, it is unlikely that you would join CSSC for the food: the days of a lunchtime hour-plus for a hot meal and a pint are long gone, and a hurried sandwich with crumbs in the keyboard is much more likely. That said, CSSC has other attractions for civil servants working in and around Victoria, including everything from horse riding to pre-Christmas coach trips to food markets in France.

Over the years, the leisure element of CSSC Sports and Leisure has become increasingly important. The London branch does have sports fields and facilities in Chadwick, but – like others around the country – it has had to scale back its offer, and London’s management has made a conscious decision to diversify its range of activities.

Over the last year, that has resulted in chocolate-making classes, Arabic and Russian lessons, and pampering weekend breaks in Madeira, among other things. Basically, if there are enough members interested, then the club will try to organise it, making CSSC a place worth visiting – if, that is, you can find your way to its HQ in that Victoria back street.

Ruth Keeling