The Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers

Visit to HMP Brixton and lunch at the Clink

‘Changing Attitudes’. ‘Transforming Lives’. ‘Reducing Re-Offending’. Thus proclaimed the freshly installed poster outside the Check-In Cabin outside HMP Brixton. Inside the prison lay the excellent Clink Restaurant, and on Sunday, 12^th October company members and their guests entered to partake of a delicious three-course meal, in a very good cause.

As might be expected of a Category C establishment, security was paramount. Days and weeks in advance, all twenty of us had given details of our names and dates of birth as they feature in our passports. On the day, there was virtually nothing we could take with us – mobile phones, hats, and even handkerchiefs were barred, and then there was the challenge of passing through an airport-style scanning device. No dog was immediately visible, but eagle-eyed diners observed one on patrol in the sun-drenched courtyard outside the window as the meal progressed.

We were well served by a gentleman who was studying for his City and Guilds qualification, and with a month to go to release, there was every prospect of his securing gainful employment and hopefully little temptation to err and stray again.

The cutlery was made of robust plastic rather than steel, and there was nothing alcoholic on the menu; members arriving by car thus had nothing to worry about under the ‘Don’t Drink and Drive’ heading. But who would have been concerned about that aspect when the choice of cocktails to start with comprised Strawberry and Lime Mojito, Elderflower and Cucumber Spritz, Blackberry Grove and Beez Knees. And that was just to begin with.

Then there was the food. Space does not permit a full listing, but the main course options included fennel and sage porchetta, striploin of beef, lemon and line roasted chicken, BBQ jerk monkfish, and stuffed napa cabbage.

We left after a couple of hours inside, hopefully leaving the world a better place.

James Dixon.