Sorry - crossed lines.
The Ballads and Blues was forerunner to The Singers Club; B&B - 1957, Singers - 1961; never been any doubt about that. What is argued is whether Topic Club started before that. There were a couple of folk/jazz evenings prior to the B&B at The Theatre Royal, Stratford, East London. It's all in Ewan's biography, 'Class Act'.
Hootenanny;
The recording I have was, I think, one of two made at the Ballad and Blues by the BBC; if you shut your eyes you can see the interviewer's bow-tie. It sounds very much like the one in your photograph.
Peggy's letter on her behaviour towards the singer can be found on the Living Tradition web-page dated July 2000 - still makes interesting reading.
What needs to be remembered about the 'national' policy was that the British clubs at the time were rapidly filling up with whey-faced young men wearing windcheaters and leather caps, singing 'Blowing In The Wind' in whiney mid-Atlantic accents, usually accompanied by long haired Joanie-clones.
Lomax, Lloyd and MacColl had set out to open up the British repertoire: it succeeded as far as I'm concerned with the introduction of the sea repertoire, the industrial songs, and later people like Harry Boardman and The Critics started to open up regional repertoires. The threat of American acculturation never totally disappeared, but it was kept in check.
The Singers Club was, I'm proud to say, a policy club with specific aims in mind. It is conveniently forgotten that there were clubs with far stricter policies; like the ones were you were virtually body-searched in case you were carrying a musical instrument. Ewan, Peggy and members of the Critics Group were constantly being asked not to sing political songs at some clubs, or modern songs - none of these conditions were ever part of The Singers Club policy. The writing of new songs was encouraged with song-writing classes, and were published in the magazine Peggy edited, The New City Songster. She also ran accompaniment classes and gave a several stunning talks on the subject.
Jim Carroll