Four Clubs

Carlton House was George IV’s residence when he was Prince of Wales.

It was magnificent but George tired of it when he became king and moved to Buckingham Palace. It was demolished in the 1820s and the land leased to developers.

This coincided with demand for new purpose-built gentlemens’ clubs – there were no suitable sites in St James’ Street. I went to look at them this morning. Four clubs sounds like a Bridge bid – invitational to game perhaps.

The first to be built was the United Service Club, now home to the Institute of Directors, designed by Nash and remodelled by Decimus Burton. Two of the clubs I went to see were covered by scaffolding, I suppose because they are closed or less busy in August. Opposite the IoD, across Waterloo Place, is the Athenaeum, also by Decimus Burton.

As it was meant to be a club for artists and literary men it strikes a note of erudition and Grecian beauty, Pevsner notes. Above the porch is a gilt figure of Pallas Athene and above the main windows a panathenaic frieze. The attic perched on top like a little titfer was added in 1899.

The next to be built was the Travellers’ Club. Charles Barry was an established architect but this was his first clubhouse. He drew inspiration from the Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence while preserving the atmosphere of an English country house. Today it has a cosy ambience lacking in any of the other clubs lining the south side of Pall Mall, including the Reform Club.

Barry went on to design or remodel a galaxy of aristocratic abodes including Cliveden, Dunrobin, Harewood, Bowood and Highclere. Indeed it was curiosity about Highclere that led to this post. He also was chosen to build the Reform, next door to the Travellers’.

It is admired by architects as superior to the Travellers’ – his masterpiece, Pevsner opines. Again Barry remembers the architecture he admired on a Grand Tour; this time the Palazzo Farnese in Rome but give me the Travellers’ any day.

The Pelican Club was a real club not just invented by PG Wodehouse. It folded at the end of the 19th century but I am reminded of it when walking in St James’s Park.