In September 1971 (under the name of The South Bermondsey Military Modelling Society), the South London Warlords was formed by three wargamers: Jim Shiels, Dave Rotor and Bill Brewer. Bill ran the Rye Stamp and Hobby shop in Peckham for many years and – until his death in 1998 – was a professional figure painter of some renown and was instrumental in raising the standard of painted wargames armies.

Locations

The Club originally met in a small hall in Bermondsey in South London but in 1974 opened a second branch in Eltham. In 1975 the ‘Bermondsey’ branch moved its location to a more suitable hall in East Dulwich where it stayed for almost twenty years. The Club held a Christmas Dinner Dance and other social functions were arranged, the Post Salute party was always popular.

In 1985 the two branches split into two individual clubs and so the South London Warlords became concentrated again at one branch in Dulwich.

During this period the Club, and wargaming, were featured on several TV programmes – on both sides of the Atlantic. We also, for many years, had a Live Action Role Playing group within the Club that took gaming to a completely different level.

In 1995 the Dulwich branch moved again to a bigger home in Dulwich Village at St. Barnabas Church Hall, where the club meets to this day.

Periods and Interests

The Club’s original name was the South Bermondsey Military Modelling Society and, when the name was changed (rather rapidly) into something a little more dynamic, the opportunity was made to change the named emphasis to reflect the Club’s activities. So the Club became the "South London Warlords Wargaming and Military Modelling Club" more often referred to as the "South London Warlords" or just plain "The Warlords". Throughout its life the Club’s interests have waxed and waned and – inevitably – been driven to some extent by popular culture. Napoleonics were popular early on, particularly so because of the film Waterloo. New armies and periods became popular as new figure ranges and rules became more prolific. Samurai armies were popular in the early eighties after the TV series Shogun. In the mid seventies, fantasy armies were popular based on The Lord of the Rings, but in the late seventies Dungeons & Dragons became the craze of the moment: role playing had arrived at the Warlords.

Many periods gamed currently are firm favourites that would have been in play on a Club night at any point for the last five decades: Napoleonics, Ancients, American Civil War and WW2. Others - Warhammer, Warhammer 40k and various other SF and Fantasy genres – have also survived the tests of time. You will find someone at the Club who is interested in almost any period of military history. Hopefully the quality of figure painting and modelling at the club has advanced over the years, as have the commercially available figures and scenery, but that aside, many games on a Monday night at the Warlords would have been recognisable many years ago – and vice versa.

Salute

In April 1972 the Club ran its first open day for the public. Called "Salute" it was held at the Surrey Tavern at the Oval Cricket ground. It was a great success and so next year bigger things were planned. ’73 saw a move to the central London Westminster Hotel and '74 The Regency Hotel. '75 took Salute to Chelsea Townhall where it stayed for the next two years. 1977 saw a change of tack with Salute being held at Margate on the south coast. While the venue worked well enough, it was thought that a London location was more appropriate for a London club and so ’78 saw Salute back at Chelsea Town Hall. 1979 saw another change of venue with the show moving to Kensington & Chelsea Town Hall – Salute’s venue for the next 20 years. In that period the Warlords also ran several late, post summer season conventions at the same Margate Wintergardens venue that had been tried with Salute ’77 (the last "Margate" being in 1982), but Salute itself stayed at Kensington and, over the years, gradually hired more and more of the facilities. 1979 saw just the Ground Floor and Lower Hall in use, but the Upper Hall was subsequently hired. On April 1st 2000, Salute opened at Olympia 2 in London. The entire second floor was hired in this prestigious venue. The show was a great success with a much needed, larger gaming and trading space and a more open feel but had some teething problems with public access. One of the great advantages of the Olympia venue was the room for expansion which seemed virtually unlimited. For Salute 2001 two floors were hired, which was again increased to three floors for Salute Zero Two. By Salute Zero Five this had increased to all four floors of Olympia 2, and once again the quest was on for an alternative venue. Since 2006, Salute has been held at the ExCeL centre in London's Docklands, currently filling over 10,000 square metres of this premier venue.