Show close alracka Al macka is no more willis rooms have had their day and ceased to be no more will the magnificent hall and salons of the dingy edifice in king street st james celebrated under both these titles re echo the sounds of revelry and mirth henceforth the animation within its walls will be confined mainly to sales by auction in its day macks Al was the center of fashion entry to which was guarded by a committee of ladies as closely as ever cerberus guarded a region not so inviting and who were less easily arti fied than er cn the fabled sentinel even the anke of wellington who according to lord william lenox earned for himself in his day the title of leip penn of the peninsula just as in later limes fl admiral earned for himself tue distinction of the swell of tha ocean was denied admission one night because he had tl ornel black trousers instead of the l breeches and sill stockings which the committee had voted indispensable for gentlemen every book dealing with fashionable life at alie end of the last century and the beginning of this abounds in references to al macks according to legend mr almack was in reality a scotchman who came to london in the real name was ATAU but as at that time hia countrymen were not so esteemed south of the tweed as they are now he thought to diminish hostility to his nationality by reversing his patronymic Al macka ultimately became willis kooms and was for long the headquarters of social festivals dances and charity dinners these festal times are over and instead of the fill your glasses gentlemen bumpers if you please the refrain of its presiding genius will be go going gone I 1 and thus disappears another link which joined the end of the century with what the late lord La called the days of the dandies london telegraph |