Night roof caved in on Benenden’s Savoy bash
Dame Vera Lynn will be 102 later this month — but that won’t slow her down. ‘She’s hoping to make a contribution to the 75th anniversary of the D-Day landings in June,’ the singer’s daughter Virginia tells me at a party to celebrate 90 years of Decca records. There are also plans for a new album. Virginia hints: ‘It’s about finding interesting new musical settings for her earlier vocal performances, maybe some duets.’
As one of the most exclusive girls’ schools in the country, £38,000-ayear Benenden has a roll- call of illustrious alumnae including the Princess Royal, oscarwinning actress Rachel Weisz and Lady Victoria Hervey.
But I can disclose it now also has reason to consider itself the most fortunate, following dramatic events on saturday night at London’s savoy Hotel — where the ‘Heart of Benenden Ball’ was suddenly curtailed when part of the ballroom ceiling collapsed.
At the time — around 10pm — the ballroom was packed with 300 Benenden parents and friends, who were enjoying dinner and an auction conducted by David Harper, a regular on The Antiques Road Trip.
‘It had been a brilliant evening ,’ Harper tells me. ‘They’d had their main courses and I’d reached the final lot, a pair of Centre Court tickets for this year’s Wimbledon.
‘I said: “These tickets are worth at least £3,200, so let’s start the bidding at — and I bellowed — THRee THoUsAnD PoUnDs . . .” And, on that note, KeRRAsH!! The roof caved in.
‘It wasn’t just a bang — stuff was just pouring out of the ceiling and smashing great big floor-to-ceiling mirrors. There were tables only feet away from the debris.
‘If there had been a table below RADIo 4 rottweiler John Humphrys will be much missed by listeners when he retires from the Today programme later this year. But the Queen may not be among them.
A BBC colleague has revealed that Her Majesty issued an uncharacteristic ‘death stare’ in Humphrys’ direction after he used a royal visit to Broadcasting House to quiz her on the recently hospitalised Prince Philip, despite being warned all questions were off limits.
Presenter Ritula shah, who stood next to the pair during the frosty exchange, recalls: ‘Prince Philip had been taken to hospital [that morning] and we were under strict instructions not to ask about this.
‘I think you can imagine what happened next. The Queen looked at that mass of rubble, it would have been calamitous. The weight of that stuff — all the plasterwork, all the gilding, the ceiling, the wood — would have been tons.’
Harper adds that there was ‘complete, stunned silence’ until the dust cleared. Then ‘people began to stand up and look up, wondering whether the rest of the roof was about to go.’
But, after evacuation to an upstairs floor, the Blitz spirit was in evidence. ‘ nobody was whingeing or moaning or crying,’ says Harper, adding that the headmistress decided the ball was over.
‘our guests were understandably shocked,’ says headmistress samantha Price. ‘ By sheer good fortune, all the Benenden girls had left the venue before this incident occurred.’
Benenden says that it is ‘ in dialogue’ with The savoy about the incident. The savoy, which completed a £220 million restoration programme in 2010, says only that ‘an investigation is under way’.