The Flat

From Fancyclopedia 1, ca. 1944

88 Gray's Inn Road, London WC1, England. It is perhaps necessary to explain that "flat" is British for apartment. This science fiction house was established in mid-1938 by the two dizziest Londoners, Bill Temple and Ego Clarke, soon joined by Maurice K. Hanson, and continued until after the war broke out, thus being the first and perhaps the longest lived such establishment.

From Fancyclopedia 2, ca. 1959

Gray's Inn Road, London WC 1, England. It is perhaps necessary to explain that "flat" is British for apartment. This science fiction house was established in mid-1938 by the two dizziest Londoners, Bill Temple and Ego Clarke, soon joined by Maurice K. Hanson, and continued until after war broke out, thus being the first such establishment.

Temple's somewhat fictionalized account of life in The Flat eventually appeared (with other stories included) as 88 Gray's Inn Road: A Living-Space Odyssey (2000). While inhabited by fans this address was for a time the national headquarters of both the British Interplanetary Society and the Science Fiction Association.

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Venue

1938—1940s

This is a venue page, covering buildings from 4-star hotels to slan shacks. Please include only structures of major fannish significance. See Standards for Venues.