the facilities of the first douglas house included volleyball, handball, and badminton courts and evening cabarets and dances. the second douglas house, on lancaster gate, had 110 low-cost hotel rooms for families as well as singles, a restaurant, nightclub, soda bar, four-chair barber shop, tv lounge, bureau de change, and a newsstand that sold american periodicals. one former serviceman remembered that the restaurant, which "specialized in steaks, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken wings, ham, roasts, and baked and fried chicken," was "the best place [in london] for american food."