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Sushi, cocktails and male escorts... the Women's Institute, inner-city style
Jonathan Prynn, Consumer Business Editor30 Oct 2009
They might make sushi instead of jam, and their guest speakers are more risqué than the average local historian - but this is still the WI.
The first formal meeting of the Borough branch of the Women's Institute - known as the Borough Belles - takes place next week as the organisation hits inner-city London. Branches are also being set up in Brixton and Stockwell, and Borough will be the fifth started in the capital this year alone.
The trend marks a radical change for a group with rural roots which only arrived in London six years ago. There are also branches in Islington and Haringey, with about 25 in Greater London as a whole.
Last week students at King's College established the capital's second campus branch. The first was set up at Goldsmiths this year and student branches are planned at Brunel and Reading. Instead of cake-baking and talks by missionaries, the new members are learning the art of sushi making. One recent speaker at a London branch was a gigolo.
Laura King, 21, who founded the King's College branch, said: "Lots of WIs are old ladies making jam. It's exciting to be saying, 'We're not going to do that, we're going to do cocktail nights.' We're definitely going to be a funky WI."
She said a recent talk by a male escort (and part-time tennis coach) had been very well attended: "He provoked debate with a lot of questions, some practical like, 'Do you always practise safe sex?' and some emotional like, 'What happens if you really like the person, or if you really don't.'"
Nanny Joanna Hackett, 29, former president of the Fulham branch -London's first - said the WI gave young professionals a social outlet beyond work: "People live very busy lives: they work, they go to the gym. With the WI you can turn up and not come for three months and nobody will tell you off. We like to do some of the old things. They're enjoyable, social and cheaper."
