Gentlemens’ clubs in London and around the world are often of great architectural distinction. It would be an agreeable task to visit them and write about their splendours.
Instead let’s visit two club houses that date back as far as the 1960s. A few years ago (pre-blog) I went up to Edinburgh for a short holiday and stayed at the New Club; founded in 1787 it is Scotland’s oldest club. This is a British joke that reached an apogee with the “Young” Mr Grace in Are You Being Served?
But I digress. The New moved to its first permanent home, on Princes Street, in 1837 but twenty years later architect David Bryce, a Victorian who wavered between Palladian, Italian Renaissance, Gothic and Scottish Baronial, no doubt influenced by the taste of his clients, gave it a make-over and so matters rested until the 1960s.
The New struck a deal with an insurance company that for a 125 year lease on the surrounding shop and office space would rebuild it in a suitably modern style. The new New is a Category A listed building. When you are inside looking out, it is largely successful but when I arrived from Waverley station it seemed an unlikely location for a club. There is a metal security door inset beside a shop front that serves as a convenient nocturnal al fresco lavatory for revellers. The contrast between the New’s unprepossessing entrance and the interior is all the more striking. Should you have recip membership do not be discouraged.
The Little Ship Club in the City is similarly architecturally challenged and there has been no mention of it being listed. It is at Bell Wharf on the north bank of the river a short distance to the east of Southwark Bridge. The club was founded at The Ship restaurant whence it derives its name. However, the participation of members in the evacuation at Dunkirk gives the name an additional relevance.
Its entrance is similarly unprepossessing. The views are not as special as the New’s of Edinburgh Castle but do give an opportunity to see that the Thames is still a working river.
