Social Victorians/London Clubs

Cliques and Social Networks

All the clubs are cliques and social networks, in a way, so the distinction is not strong.

• The Marlborough House Set
• The Souls
• The Coterie
• Crabbet Club
• Men and Women's Club

The Hunt Clubs, regionally rather than London based, with an annual Hunt Ball

• Warwickshire Hunt Club
• Worcestershire Hunt Club

No dance is prettier than that of a hunt club. It has an air about it more nationally charactcristic than that given by officers of a regiment, or of a ship. There is a spirit and go about it too seldom equalled at other dances, and the hunt uniforms are always in themselves a study. Only an expert can tell at a glance to which hunt particular facings belong, although many of us are acquainted with those of the more celebrated clubs. One of those in Oxfordshire, which shall be nameless, has adopted recently a new blue evening tie; the members are at some variance of opinion with regard to shade, and the effect is not happy. As a mere woman I have a preference for what men call "the white choker," there is a style about it unattainable by any coloured tie, and it suits men so exceedingly well that they ought to stick to it. I know a few hunt uniforms, not all by any means, and of those of my acquaintance I prefer the red coats with pale green facings of the Rufford to any others, but this is a mere matter of prettiness, possibly others appeal more strongly to sporting instincts. The question of knee-breeches and silk stockings or trousers in hunt evening dress is a vexed one solved very likely by each member in accordance with the opinion he has formed of his own legs. There can be no doubt that the knee-breeches look far smarter. This is flagrant digression into the province of sportsmen, in whose appearance, however, we may perhaps be permitted a slight interest. Many hunts have a ladies' uniform, but that only for equestrian attire; the most we ever do at balls is to carry out club colours in our costume or bouquet, and that of course, only if they happen to suit our complexions. The blue and buff of the Beaufort is smart-looking, the chocolate and pale blue of the Earl of Harrington's is a very favourite uniform, and the new colours instituted by Lady Lonsdale for the Quorn — a peculiar shade of blue with a smart little touch of [intervening image] red — seems to give great satisfaction among the feminine followers of that celebrated hunt.

Contemporary Overviews

In the 8 April 1911 Sphere, "C. K. S." says,

I have derived a lot of pleasure from Mr. Ralph Nevill's new book, London Clubs: their History and Treasures (Chatto and Windus). Mr. Nevill has added one more to a very interesting series of volumes, of which The Merry Past and Light Come, Light Go, are two others. Many will most appreciate that part of Mr. Nevill's book for which I care least — the history of certain clubs, such as Brooks's and White's. Here I think Mr. Nevill has followed too blindly John Timbs's well-known book. I am not sure that he has read an earlier book by Marsh, and he seems not to have seen the volumes provided by the two clubs that I have named, Mr. Algernon Bourke's History of White's Club and Mr. Victor Williamson's Memorials of Brooks's, the latter a not very satisfactory compilation, whereas Mr. Bourke's History of White's is really a fine and well-written book.

If Mr. Nevill had seen The History of White's Club he could not have fixed its origin where he does, following therein Timbs and Cunningham, Mr. Wheatley and Mr. Walford, in the assumption that White's original house was five doors from the bottom of St. James's Street, this error being derived from misreading a caricature by Gilray. Mr. Bourke makes it perfectly clear that White's original Chocolate House stood where Boodle's Club now is — that is to say, at 28, St. James's Street.

Again, I find Mr. Nevill mixing up The Club and the Literary Club. Herein he follows Timbs, who says that the name of The Club was altered to the Literary Club at Garrick's funeral. I think I am right in saying that there have always been two clubs. The Club, of which Johnson, Garrick, and Reynolds were members, exists at the present day under the same name. It is very exclusive, confining itself to a few eminent politicians of literary proclivities. Lord Rosebery is a member, and Mr. Balfour and Mr. Birrell.

The Literary Club also still exists although I have not heard of it for some years. Of this last club Thackeray was once the president, and I am the owner of the chair in which he sat at its meetings, a thoroughly well-authenticated piece of furniture. It was given to me by Sir William Ingram, who received it from Sir Erasmus Wilson, one of the members of the Literary Club at the time when Thackeray was president. I once spent a week-end in the company of that delightful raconteur, Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, and he told me a great deal [Col. 2c–3a] about the Literary Club, of which he was a member until his death.

These, however, are subordinate matters. The main point is that Mr. Nevill has written a delightful book, the charm of which is not so much in the historical portion as in his own account of clubs that he knows well, for he is evidently a genuine clubman and is able to picture the life of a good London club from the inside in a way that few who have written upon the subject have been able to do. The final result is excellent. We have here a most readable book and one which every clubman should have at his elbow.

Mr. Nevill might well supplement it by another volume on the dining clubs of London, a subject that he almost ignores or treats indifferently as in the case of The Club and the Literary Club. There is a good essay by Sir Spencer Walpole in his Essays Political and Biographical on the dining clubs of London, which treats of The Club, and Nobody's and the Literary Club. Among other clubs mentioned by Sir Spencer Walpole are the Dilettanti and Grillion's.

There are, however, a great many comparatively new dining clubs that would come into a book upon the subject. There is the Johnson Club, the Omar Khayyám Club, the Noviomagians — of which I have once been a guest and which is now, I believe, defunct — the Titmarsh Club, the Whitefriars Club, the Auburn Club, and what is perhaps the most democratic of them all, the Vagabonds Club. It is possible that these and others would make a very interesting book.

Distinguishing Clubs from Pubs

Although inns had been classless up to and beyond Mr Pickwick’s day, by the late nineteenth century few above the middle class used pubs. In London and other cities gentlemen’s clubs proliferated so that men could drink in suitable society. The Hon. Algernon Bourke, secretary of White’s Club, said in 1896 that ‘the class I deal with and the class I associate with and the class I know do not go into public houses.’ ... The middle class did frequent pubs, but generally as families became more prosperous, the code to which they conformed dictated moderation, and they tended to drink in the privacy of their own or someone else’s home. By 1900 whenever members of the middle class were to be found in a pub it would be in the saloon bar, where the beer was more expensive and the furnishings likely to be more comfortable. The many working-class people who frequented pubs would colonise the more basic public bar, sometimes called the ‘spit and sawdust’ because of its absorbent floor covering.

The Clubs

Flourishing and Address as of 1875 plus additions with quotations and specifics.

Albert

1 Bolt Court, Fleet Street, E.C. (Thom 527)

Alfred

22A Change Alley, E.C.

Alpine

8 St. Martin's Place, W.C.

Arlington

4 Arlington Street, W. (Thom 527)

Army & Navy

36 Pall Mall, S. W. (Thom 527)

Junior Army and Navy Club

12 Grafton Street, W.

Arthur's

69 St. James's Street, S. W.

Arts

17 Hanover Square, W.

Arundel

12 Salisbury Street, Strand

Athenaeum

107 Pall Mall, S. W.

And Junior Athenaeum Club

116 Picadilly, W.

Baths

The 1895 Yorkshire Post report says the club was started the prior year, so perhaps these are not the same club.

1892

Truth reports the following:

In the matter of clubs, enterprise seems to be unceasing. The latest institution of the kind which will shortly open its doors is the "Baths Club." The directors of the "Baths Club" have purchased Lord Abergavenny's house in Dover-street, and here, when the necessary alterations have been completed, will be found a most luxurious combination of baths of all nations and of every kind. Amongst the Directors are Mr. Herbert Gladstone, Mr. W. Grenfell, Mr. Edward Tennant, and Mr. James Mansfield. The General Committee comprises amongst other names those of Lord Chesterfield, Lord Minto, Lord Dalkeith, Lord Cairns, Lord Ampthill, Mr. Alfred Lyttelton, Mr. Algernon Bourke, Sir Frederick Milner, Admiral Maxse, and Mr. C. Williamson Milne. It is unnecessary for the moment to enlarge upon the advantages which will be offered by the "Baths Club," for the scheme has met with such general and influential support that its success is scarcely a matter for conjecture.

1895

The Baths’ Club, which was started last year under distinguished auspices in Dover Street, Piccadilly has, says our London Correspondent, been a great success. At the annual meeting of the members to-morrow the committee, of which Mr. W, Grenfell is president, will be able to announce that the number of candidates for membership to date, including ladies, is 1,606, and the number of members elected 1,090. The income from all sources amounted to £10,376, including £1,170 15s. received for life membership and entrance fees. The dining-room expenditure was slightly in excess of the income, but as the outgoings included boarding a staff of 70 servants the result is regarded as not altogether unsatisfactory. In order to make the club more generally attractive it is proposed to form a collection of books and works of art on sports and pastimes, and at the meeting to-morrow a Library Committee will be formed with this end in view. The General Committee, which is to be proposed for election at the same time, reflects strong position which the club holds in the fashionable world. It includes the Duke of Abercorn, the Hon. Algernon Bourke, the Marquess of Carmarthen, M.P., Lord Alwyne Compton, M.P., Viscount Curzon, the Earl of Lonsdale, Lord Suffield, Mr. Hwfa Williams, Mr. George Wyndham, M.P., and the Hon. Arthur Henniker.

Beaufort

7 Rathbone Place, Oxford Street, W.

Bolingbroke Reading-Room and Institute

Not exactly a club, but it had a similar function perhaps.

From the South London Press:

This institute continues to prosper. Mr. Edward Wood has been elected president, and the following gentlemen have consented to act as vice-presidents: Mr. J. F. Moulton, Q.C., M.P., Mr. O. V. Morgan, M.P., Hon. Algernon Bourke, Mr. W. Evil, Mr. J. Buckmaster, Rev. J. P. Fannthorpe, Rev. J. Sharr, Sir J. Trevor Lawrence, M.P., Dr. Mabyn Read, and Mrs. Woodhouse. Valuable gifts of books have been received from the Hon. A. Bourke, Messrs. Macmillan and Co., Rev. A. C. Woodhouse, Rev. J. Parr, Mr. A. G. Browning, Mr. J. Wix, Rev. A. Towsey, Miss Donaldson, and Messrs. Steer, Garland, Coxall, and Harrison. The library is now open for issue of books every evening from 8.30 to 9, and every Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday, from 12.30 to 1 p.m. Chess and draughts are played daily, but especially on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday evenings.

Boodle's

28 St. James's Street

Brooks'

60 St. James's Street

In June 1894, the London Echo reported

Mr. Algernon Bourke, who recently published two interesting works — "The History of White's" and "The Jeykell Memoirs" — is now preparing another antiquarian book in “The History of Brooke's.” The two volumes will contain stories of Fox, Selwyn, Sheridan, "Fighting" Fitzgerald, and other famous members of the club, and a number of illustrations.

Burlington Fine Arts

17 Savile Row, W.

Carlton

94 Pall Mall

A. N. Wilson calls the Carlton Club "the panting heart of Conservative London."

City Carlton Club

83 King William Street., E. C.

Junior Carlton Club

30 Pall Mall

Cavendish

307 Regent Street, W.

City Liberal

71 Queen Street, E.C. (address marked as "temporary" in 1875)

City of London

19 Old Broad Street, E. C.

City United

Ludgate Circus, E. C.

Civil and Military

316 Regent Street, W.

Clarence

1 Regent Street, Waterloo Place, S. W.

Cobden

5 Milman Street, Bedford Row, W. C.

Cocoa Tree

64 St. James's Street

Conservative

74 St. James's Street

Junior Conservative Club

29 King Street, St. James's (Thom 528)

Cosmopolitan

30 Charles Street, Berkeley Square, W.

County

43 Albemarle Street, W.

Crabbet Club

Members

• Wilfred Blunt, founder
• George Curzon: Lord Curzon of Kedlestone
• George Wyndham
• George Leveson-Gower
• Lord Houghton: Lord Crewe
• Mr. Harry Cust
• Mr. Mark Napier
• Lord Cairns ("the late Lord Cairns")
• Mr. "Lulu" Harcourt
• Oscar Wilde (attended one meeting)
• Lord Alfred Douglas (attended one meeting)
• many more

History of the Crabbet Club

Wilfred Blunt outlines the history of Crabbet Club, ending with its reconstruction with younger men in 1890:

The Crabbet Club was in its origin a purely convivial gathering, unambitious of any literary aim. It began in this way: When George, Lord Pembroke (the 13th Earl) came of age in 1871, having been a very popular boy at Eton, with many school friends, and afterwards at Oxford, he thought it would be amusing to continue in some measure the life they had led by having them to stay with him once or twice every summer at Wilton, for a day or two at a time, to play cricket, and row on the river, and otherwise divert themselves, and they took the name of the “Wilton," or "Wagger” Club, and it proved a great success. In 1876, though much older than the rest of the members, I was asked to join it as one who had known the Herberts from their school days. Pembroke was staying with me at Crabbet, and his two brothers and their sister Gladys (afterwards Lady Ripon), and several of their friends, and several of mine, and I drove them all to Epsom for the / Derby (Silvio's year), and we had a cricket match and a lawn tennis handicap (lawn tennis was in the process of being invented, and we played on a court 20 feet longer than what afterwards became the regulation length), and it was on this occasion that I joined the club. The party at Crabbet had proved such a success that the next year it was proposed that the club should make one of its regular meetings there, and so it gradually came about that the members came to Crabbet annually. The members of the club were never more than a few, a dozen to twenty, and consisted, besides the Herbert brothers, of Eddy Hamilton, who was afterwards Gladstone's private secretary, Lord Lewisham, Jocelyn Amherst, Granny Farquhar, Lionel Bathurst, with Harry Brand (afterwards Lord Hampden), Nigel Kingscote, Godfrey Webb, Button Bourke, Frank Lascelles, Mark Napier, and half-a-dozen more of my own intimates, and these came regularly to Crabbet every summer, and we gradually adopted the “Crabbet Club” as the name of our branch. Though we professed no kind of politics, and looked to amusement only, nearly all the members of it were Tories, two or three of them in Parliament, and when in 1882 I took the somewhat violent line I did about Egypt and war ensued, several of the members taking offence ceased their attendance, and the Club as far as the Crabbet meetings were concerned became less popular, and this state of things was aggravated when I stood for Parliament as a Home Ruler in 1885 and 1886, and it was all but submerged by my imprisonment at Galway. Hardly any of the old Wilton members would answer the invitations to it, and Pembroke himself, the most tolerant of men, as an Irish landlord with large interests at stake in the county of Dublin, felt it a grievance that I should have identified myself with the Land League and the Plan of Campaign. All this was natural enough, and I could not complain of the defection. The Club as the “Crabbet Club” was still continued, but reconstructed on different lines with a number of young men, Oxford undergraduates, most of them professing Home Rule opinions. The chief of these were the two Peels, Willy and George, sons of the Speaker, Arthur Pollen, Herbert Vivian, Leo Maxse, Percy Wyndham (son of Sir Hugh), Theodore Fry, Theobald Mathew, Artie Brand, and Loulou / Harcourt, the only three of the old set being Mark Napier, Eddy Hamilton, and Nigel Kingscote.

1892 July 23 and 24, Blunt describes a meeting of the Crabbet Club. Present were George Wyndham, George Curzon, Nigel Kingscote, Charles Gatty, Theobald Mathew, Godfrey Webb, Loulou Harcourt, Charles Laprimaudaye, Harry Cust, Hubert Howard, George Leveson Gower, Dick Grosvenor, Mark Napier:

George Wyndham performed a wonderful feat, writing a long poem in a most complicated metre, and full of excellent things in hardly more than an hour, between sets of lawn tennis. Cust wrote another under like conditions, so full of wit that we nearly gave him the prize. George Leveson was also good. The tennis handicap was won by Hubert Howard, the laureateship by Mathew. Hubert won the cup through Grosvenor's magnanimity, who having the last set in hand suddenly found himself lame and retired. Cust is interesting, and of great abilities. George Leveson a delightful butt, and cause of wit in others with untouchable good humour. These occasions are the salt of life.

1893 July 1–2, Saturday and Sunday, Blunt describes "Crabbet. Annual meeting of the Crabbet Club." Besides himself, the members present were: George Curzon, George Leveson Gore, George Wyndham, George Peel (the 4 Georges), Morpeth, Mark Napier, Harry Cust, Charles Gatty, Hubert Howard, Godfrey Webb, Percy Wyndham, Loulou Harcourt, Theodore Fry, Theobald Mathew, Charles Laprimaudaye and Lawrence Currie.

We sat down over twenty to dinner, and did not leave the table till half-past one. ...

St. George Lane Fox, and two new men, Esmé Howard and Eddy Tennant.

George Curzon was, as usual, the most brilliant, he never flags for an instant either in speech or repartee; after him George Wyndham, Mark Napier, and Webber. The next day, Sunday, Harry Cust won the Tennis Cup, and the Laureateship was adjudged to Curzon.

1894 June 30 and July 1, Blunt says of "Our Annual Crabbet Club Meeting" that, besides himself, the members present were George Wyndham, George Curzon, George Peel, George Leveson Gower, Esmé Howard, St. George Lane Fox, Eddy Tennant, Hubert Howard, Godfrey Webb, Mark Napier, Theobald Mathew, Charles Gatty and Lawrence Currie, "with three new members, Lord Cairns, Alfred Douglas, and Basil Blackwood."

Crichton

3 Adelphi Terrace, W. C.

Devonshire

St. James's Street

East India United Service

14 St. James's Square

Egerton

87 St. James's Street

Farmers'

Salisbury Hotel, Fleet Street

Garrick

13 Garrick Street, W. C.

Junior Garrick Club

1A Adelphi Terrace, Strand, W. C.

Grafton

10 Grafton Street, W.

Grampian

11 Charles Street, Cavendish Square, W.

Gresham

Gresham Place, King William Street, E. C.

Guards'

70 Pall Mall, S. W.

The Guards' Club originated the idea of offering barley water — "a non-alcoholic drink [—] gratis to every member," a practice also carried out by White's Club, the Marlborough Club and the Turf Club.

The Liquor Licensing Laws Commission collected evidence about drinking, and the Hon. Algernon Bourke, as manager of White's testified:

Mr. Algernon Bourke, manager of White's club — a club more than 200 years old — tells us something about the inner working of he club. He says: —

In our club, and in most of the West-end clubs, there is this arrangement, and I should almost like to suggest to the proprietors of working men's clubs that they should do the same as we do. We supply a non-alcoholic drink gratis to every member. At White's Club it takes the form of an excellent barley water. At the Guards Club the same; the Marlborough Club the same; the Turf Club the same. We do that, and in this sort of weather (it was July when Mr. Bourke spoke) a very large quantity of that is drunk in preference to drinking a whiskey and soda and some other things.

The credit of originating this idea, it seems, belongs to the Guards' Club. Mr. Bourke says it has undoubtedly resulted in a great decrease in the consumption of alcoholic drink, meaning, obviously the consumption in West-end clubs.

Hanover

28 George Street, W.

Hogarth

84 Charlotte Street, Fitzroy Square, W.

Ilchester Club

2, 3 Ilchester-gardens, Hyde Park, W., "just off Bayswater-road"

A club for women. Opened Saturday 19 June 1897 (or perhaps the week before?):

The Ilchester Club.—A club for ladies that has neither an educational nor a political fad to serve is somewhat new. The Ilchester Club for Ladies, occupying two good houses just off the Bayswater-road, has no other object than the providing of a comfortable home for ladies of good birth, on terms which should appeal to a very large number. For the sum of £82 per annum a lady may have all the advantages of a well-conducted house, and have everything provided, including food and many of those social comforts which one does not even find in one's own house. The club starts under capital auspices, and on Saturday night it was inaugurated by the play of "Still Waters Run Deep," excellently played by the Hon. Mabel Vereker and Miss Norah Vandaleur; the former lady, I understand, largely interesting herself in the club. The male characters were cleverly sustained by Captain Baden-Powell, Captain C. E. Norton, Major Montresor, Mr. Davidson of Tulloch. Count de Seilern, the Marquis Montagliari, and Mr. Crookshank. Although the limits of the stage were very narrow, full credit was done to Tom Taylor's delightful comedy.

Law Society

103 Chancery Lane

Lyric

The Lyric Club, in Piccadilly East, is dead, and many will sincerely regret its decease. Specially will this be the case with American and foreign musicians, for the Lyric proviled these with an opportunity of displaying their individual talents before an audience mainly composed of musical patrons and fellow artists. The Lyric Club was recently promoted into a company, Sir Julian Goldsmid, [p. 614 [20 in BNA], Col. 2c / 615 [21], Col. 1a] Captain Brownlow, Captain Mackinnon, Mr. Sinclair Macleay, and Dr. Scott Saunders being, I understand, amongst its principal directors. Proceedings having been instituted against Dr. Scott Saunders on a charge of forgery, the Directors of the Lyric Club discovered various circumstances which rendered it advisable to terminate at once its existence, and on Thursday morning of last week the Lyric ceased definitely to exist. There is at present no intention whatever of reorganising this institution, though another club, distinguished by another name, but embodying the best advantages of the late Lyric, together with many others which it did not possess, will shortly be organised.

Meanwhile, through the enterprise of Mr. Luther Munday, the members of the late Lyric Club are being provided with accommodation and entertainment in the premises of the late Meistersingers' Club at 63, St. James's-street. As both the Lyric and the Meistersingers are dead, it is a singular and unique fact in Club history that there now exists at 63, St. James's-street a club absolutely without a name. This is, I believe, the first instance of such a case on record.

Dr. Scott Saunders is charged with having forged the signature of Lord Londesborough. Misfortunes never come singly, and Lord Londesborough, who must be a heavy loser through his recent transactions in connection with the Lyric Club, has now suffered another serious loss through the fire which destroyed Seamer Moor on Sunday evening.

Marlborough

52 Pall Mall

The Guards' Club originated the idea of offering barley water — "a non-alcoholic drink [—] gratis to every member," a practice also carried out by White's Club, the Marlborough Club and the Turf Club. A fuller description of this subject is under the Guards' Club.

Medical

9 Spring Gardens, S. W.

Men and Women's Club

1885 July 9, Thursday, the Men and Women's Club was rededicated "to focus on the relations between the two sexes" in its first meeting.

1885 October, in the second meeting, Henrietta Muller responded to Pearson's paper of 9 July 1885 with "The Other Side of the Question" (Bland 12). There were meetings in November and December 1885 as well.

1887 January, Annie Besant spoke at the meeting of the Men and Women's Club; her paper was "The State and Sexual Relations," or "preventive checks," or contraception (Bland 19).

National

1 Whitehall Gardens

Naval and Military

94 Picadilly, W.

Junior Naval and Military Club

19 Dover Street, W.

New Thames Yacht

Caledonian Hotel, 1 Robert Street, Adelphi, W. C.

New Travellers'

16 George Street, Hanover Square, W.

New University

57 St. James's Street

Oriental

18 Hanover Square, W.

Oxford and Cambridge

71 Pall Mall

Pall Mall

7 Waterloo Place, S. W.

Pelican

From July 1891:

That fin de Siècle institution the Pelican Club is well known, thanks to the numerous advertisements it has received in the law courts and newspapers. It is a mistake however, to suppose that the Pelican is a club devoted to encouragement of pugilism, or that pugilists are habitués of its comfortable home, except as active participators in boxing matches in the ring, or while waiting for their turn penned behind railings. As a matter of fact it is by the merest accident that the Pelicans have become such prominent patrons of boxing.

The Club was originally started in March, 1887, by the proprietor Mr. Arthur Ernest Wells in a small house in Gerrard Street, which had been used as a coach-builder's shop. Mr. Wells' initial idea was to form a resort for Bohemians, to which no strangers should be admitted, much after the fashion of the popular Beefsteak Club that has flourished over Toole's Theatre for some years. It was to be a one room club with sanded floor, luncheons and suppers from the grill, and the only other attractions were a grand piano, a billiard table and a bar.

From the first it was extremely popular, "all sorts and conditions of men "joining, peers and pressmen, actors and stockbrokers, artists and guardsmen. There seemed an extra charm in the Welsh rarebit and baked potato if eaten while Mr. Edward Solomon was trying over a new song on the piano, or Mr. Cammeyer was sweeping the strings of his zither-banjo. Boxing was about the last thing thought of, and it was only because Jem Smith, then champion of England, was much en évidence as one of the combatants in a proposed prize-fight, that the idea suggested itself to the proprietor to give a boxing entertainment for the delectation of the Pelicans.

Although the general room was very ill adapted for such a purpose, the floor being carpeted, and the ring erected between posts that supported the roof, the boxing "took on" at once, and the entertainment was repeated weekly. A great number of the members being journalists it was no wonder that the success of the new departure was considerably paragraphed in the newspapers, and did not escape the attention of the police, who, also urged on by several anonymous letters, made a raid on the Club premises on Sunday, April 25th, 1587.

As the police came tumbling into the room just as the penultimate round of a boxing competition was going on, they looked astonished and particularly foolish at the sight of rows upon rows of members all in evening dress sitting in stolid silence watching the sparring. A member of the committee, an officer of the Guards, who happened to be present, demanded of the two inspectors who headed the raiders, what they wanted, but they were unable to give a satisfactory answer, and eventually the constables retired amid the derision of the members. It afterwards transpired that the police had been informed that the game of baccarat was being played at the club, and the authorities at Scotland Yard made ample amends for their unwarranted intrusion.

From this time forward the Pelican Club became the acknowledged home of first-class boxing matches, and members flocked in so fast, despite a raised subscription and an entrance fee, that new quarters had to be found. A freehold site was purchased in Gerrard Street, Soho, facing Shaftesbury Avenue, and here, early in 1889, the foundation stone of the present magnificent premises was laid by Sir John D. Astley, Bart., the president ot the club.

Although the new club house was not opened for nearly a year, the much talked of glove fight between Jem Smith and Jackson, the black, came of in the new premises before they were finished. Although the stakes were a thousand pounds, the largest that had ever been boxed for up to then, the affair lasted only a couple of rounds, occupying something like six minutes, when Smith was disqualified for a foul. It cannot be disguised that the result of the match did not improve the standing of boxing as a national sport and although there have been many excellent glove contests since, boxing for large sums of money undoubtedly received its death warrant over this fiasco. Boxing on Sundays also has ceased at the Pelican out of consideration to the general public feeling on the subject, and only at intervals do the members muster on Sabbath evenings for the excellent smoking concerts which are impossible on week days, in consequence of the professional engagements of the actors and singers who take part in them.

The Club is now firmly established, and as it numbers nearly twelve hundred members need fear no rival. There is a thoroughly representative committee, and a noticeable rule of the club is, that "No game of cards shall be allowed in the club."

The Pelicans are undoubtedly seen at their best on a Saturday night when their usual weekly boxing entertainment takes place. The ring is pitched in the spacious gymnasium downstairs, and although none of the seats are reserved, it is curious how custom has allotted certain portions of the arena to the different sets amongst the members. For instance, on the west side of the eighteen-foot ring, and around the referee's box — which usually contains either Mr. B. J. Angle, Mr. George Vize or Mr. Reggie Wakefield, all veteran amateur boxers — and Mr. F. C. Hilder, are clustered the members who hail from the Turf, White's and Guard's [Guards'] Clubs. Here on any night during the boxing season may be seen such well-known men as Lord Queensberry, Harry Hungerford, Sir Charles Hartopp, Lord Lonsdale, Lord Craven, John Delacour, Sir John Astley, Colonel Fox, the Hon. Algernon Bourke, Lord Royston, the Hon. Michael Sandys, Lords Esmé and Granville Gordon, Baron Max de Tuyll, Major "Sugar" Candy, Bagot-Chester, Lord Rossmore, Colonel Fraser, Lord Cholmondeley, the two Coventrys, Arthur and Aubrey, and Lord Marcus Beresford. Actors and journalists cluster about the stairs on the north side, among the most regular attendants being Fred Terry, F. Ker, Arthur Bourchier, Arthur Roberts, Fred Leslie, J. L. Shine, Sidney Howard, Mons. Marius; George Edwardes, Augustus and Charles Harris and Charles Hawtrey representing the managers. The journalists are more modest in numbers, Harrington O'Reilly, H. P. Stephens, James Davis, John Corlett, Lionel Monckton, A. M. Binstead, Byron Webber, C. Blake, and Tom Burnside being among the frequenters. The City and coaching members show a decided preference for the east side of the room, among the most notable being Colonel North and his aide de camp, Captain Carvick, H. L. Beckett, "Swish" Broadwood, "Dickey the Driver," Skipper Holmes, Percy Bouch, Willie Mackenzie, Carleton Blyth, F. Meredith, R. Cosier, J. K. Edward, Walter Pallant, J. Hawkins, R. S. Evans, and Philip Ellissen. The south side of the ring is much affected by distinguished visitors and Americans who are members, among the latter being Walter Coggeshall, W. King, Major Noah, Colonel Shaffer, and J. L. Onativia. General sport is well represented by J. L. Davis, Sir Matthew Wood, Captain Bailey, Charles Thompson, Captain Bewick, Frank Cobbett, Loftus Thornhill, Bernard Posno, R. Stuckey Wood, and Sir Simon Lockhart.

Pheonix

275 Strand, W. C.

Pratt's

14 Park Place, St. James's

Prince's Cricket and Prince's Racket and Tennis

22 Hans Place, Sloane Street, S. W., same address as the Prince's Racket and Tennis Club

Prince's Skating Club

1896, November 6, Friday

1896 may have been the first opening of the Prince's Skating Rink, although the 1902 reports say it is the 7th season. The newspapers provide details about the building and the rink itself.

1902, October

The newspapers reported on 2 Fridays, October 24th and 31st.

Prince of Wales's Yacht

Freemason's Tavern, 61 Great Queen Street, W. C.

Queen's

"Founded as The Queen's Club Limited on 19 August 1886 by Evan Charteris, George Francis and Algernon Grosvener, the Queen's Club was the world's second multipurpose sports complex, after the Prince's Club .... The first lawn tennis courts were opened on 19 May 1887, and the first sporting event was held on 1 and 2 July 1887 when Oxford played Cambridge. The club buildings were opened in January 1888, having taken about 18 months to construct."

In order to establish residence for his 26 July 1888 marriage to Caroline, Duchess of Montrose, Marcus Henry Milner "earned the necessary residential qualification by staying at the Queen's Club."

Raleigh

14 Regent Street, S. W.

Ramblers'

35 Ludgate Hill

Reform

104 Pall Mall

Royal Thames Yacht

7 Albemarle Street

St. George's Chess

20 King Street, St. James's

St. James's

106 Picadilly

Junior St. James's Club

54 St. James's Street

St. Stephen's

1 Bridge Street, Westminster, S. W.

Savile

15 Savile Row, W.

Smithfield

47 Half Moon Street, W.

Stafford

2 Savile Row, W.

Temple

37 Arundel Street, Strand

Thatched House

86 St. James's Street

Travellers'

106 Pall Mall

Turf

4 Grafton Street, W.

The Guards' Club originated the idea of offering barley water — "a non-alcoholic drink [—] gratis to every member," a practice also carried out by White's Club, the Marlborough Club and the Turf Club. A fuller description of this subject is under the Guards' Club.

Union

Trafalgar Square, W.

United Clergy and Laity

24 Charles Street, St. James's

United Service

116 Pall Mall

Junior United Service Club

11 Charles Street, St. James's

United University

1 Suffolk Street, Pall Mall East, S. W.

Universities

71 Jermyn Street, St. James's, S. W.

Verulam

54 St. James's Street

Victoria

18 Wellington Street, Strand, W. C.

Wanderers'

4 Park Place, St. James's

Westminster

23 Albemarle Street

Whitehall

47 Parliament Street, S. W.

White's

38 St. James's Street

Established in 1693, the oldest of London's gentleman's clubs, White's still excludes women. It was named originally for a business, Mrs. White's Chocolate House.

A controversy arose in the summer of 1896 because of White's Summer Club in Kensington Park.

The Guards' Club originated the idea of offering barley water — "a non-alcoholic drink [—] gratis to every member," a practice also carried out by White's Club, the Marlborough Club and the Turf Club. A fuller description of this subject is under the Guards' Club.

The 3 October 1896 Newcastle Chronicle reported on Algernon Bourke's history of White's Club. (A discussion of some details from this book are at Contemporary Overviews, above.)

The Hon. Algernon Bourke's interesting "History of White's" gives a vivid and faithful picture of fashionable society during the eighteenth century, and the earlier half of the nineteenth.

White's was originally founded in 1608 as White's Chocolate House. In those days there were no clubs, such as we understand them in our time. People went to the chocolate or coffee houses; and many of those reeorts acquired peculiar characteristics of their own. Will's Coffee House at the end of Bow Street was, for example, at the beginning of the eighteenth century frequented by Dryden, and was noted as the rallying ground of the wits of the town, who won their spurs in satire and epigram under the patronage of the great poet. Child's Coffee House, in St. Paul's Churchyard, became the beat up of physicians and apothecaries with an admixture of the clergy. The Grecian Coffee House, in a court leading out of the Strand, was used principally by lawyers; while such resorts as the Cocoa Tree and St. James's were frequented by Tory and Whig politicians respectively. White's Chocolate House was during the earlier portion of its career of no particular political complexion. Dice and cards rather than literary or political disputations were its attractions. At first, anybody could walk in who could afford the penny charged for admission, and who had money enough in his pocket to order the "drawer" to bring in a dish of chocolate or a bottle of port. This, however, led to disagreeables. A mighty duke or belted earl often found himself at the same table with a swaggering Captain Culpepper from Alsatia, with a highwayman who had achieved a successful exploit on the road, or with a city apprentice who had emptied his master's till and set up as a fine gentleman. By degrees, men of titles and position who knew each other, reserved for their own private use an inner room of the Chocolate House, from which persons who did not possess the "open sesame" to it were excluded, and in this way White's became a club! The proprietor of the establishment soon discovered that it would pay him best to limit his civilities to aristocratic customers, and he one fine day announced that his Chocolate House would be closed to all who did not come to it with the necessary credentials.

White's at an early date won notoriety as a club in which gaming for high stakes was customary. In Queen Anne's reign it had already established its reputation in this respect; for there is a passage in Swift in which he says that the Earl of Oxford "never passed White's Chocolate House (the common rendezvous of infamous sharpers and noble bullies) without bestowing a curse on that famous academy as the bane of half the English aristocracy."

It nay be doubted, neverthe!ess, whether White's in its worst days ever reached the scandalous celebrity of Crookford's. In the latter club, cheating was notorious. Prince Louis Napoleon was sharped there out of £2,000 in one night; but through his influential friends fortunately recovered the money. Yet White's was bad enough in all conscience. It was no uncommon thing for a nobleman to enter its doors a rich man on one night, and to leave it a beggar in the morning. Mr. Bourke relates of one particular gentleman that he gambled away £90,000 in a night. A fashion crept in, moreover, of wagering on all sorts of conceivable contingencies. Horace Walpole's anecdote in illustration of this is so well known that it will be perhaps stale for money. For the benefit of the few it may, however, be given here. Writing in 1750, he remarks: — "A man dropped down dead at the door of White's, and was carried in. The club immediately made bets whether he was dead or not, and when they were going to bleed him, the wagerers for his death interposed, and said that it would affect the fairness of the bet." Wagers were made on births, deaths, and marriages; on the probable forces to be engaged in impending battles, on the results of sieges, on the conditions of treaties, on Parliamentary elections, on the fluctations [sic] of stocks, and on the course of quotations in the corn markets. Early this century the career of the Emperor Bonaparte was a fruitful theme of bets; and those who speculated on his downfall made a good thing of it. Sporting bets seem to have been few, however. The horse racing "tipster" had not come into existence.

Wits and gourmets frequented White's for other purposes than gambling. The choicest and costliest repasts were given there. The banquet which White's gave to the allied sovereigns in 1814 cost £10,000, the entertainment of each guest amounting to £4 per head. Lord Alvanley invited a few friends to a little dinner, one of the dishes of which consisted of the "noix" or "oysters" taken from three hundred birds. It was, in short, the lavish folly of the Romans over again. Among the wits figured prominently George Selwyn and Horace Walpole. Grave statesmen frequented White's in their turn. The names of Sir Robert Walpole, Pulteney, Fox, Pitt, Wellington and Castlereagh, Canning and Peel are associated with the club. The club was nevertheless not of a strictly political character until 1783, when on the election of William Pitt it became Tory.

Strange tales are also told of the servants of White's. One of its head waiters, Robert Mackreth, who rose to be club manager and proprietor, induced the Earl of Oxford to return him as member for the nomination borough of Castle Rising, in Norfolk. It is believed that the Earl of Oxford did so because he was too deeply in debt to Mackreth to thwart him in his political ambition. Another servant named Raggett, who waited upon the players in the gaming rooms, realised a handsome fortune by simply picking up from the carpets the counters which the gamblers in their cups — men did not sit down to cards sober in those days as they do now — left sprawling. As cash was never staked at the tables, these counters represented of course money, and could be exchanged for it. A third servant — a knife-boy named Rumbold — moved interest with a member of the East India Company, secured an appointment, went out to India, and shook the Pagoda tree with such success as to realise a magnificent fortune. This knife-boy attained, in fact, to the dignity of Governor of Madras.

1869

When the Sublime Society "ceased to exist" in 1869, it sold its effects, one of which was a table:

An oak dining-table with President's cap, a mitre and a gridiron carved in three separate circular compartments at the top. This relic of past conviviality is now [in 1911] at the White's Club, having been purchased by the Hon. Algernon Bourke some years ago.

1888

23 July 1888, Monday, White's Club got the lease for the house that Bourke managed:

At the adjourned meeting of the members of White’s Club yesterday, the Duke of Buccleuch presiding, it was agreed give Mrs. Percival £1,200 for her surrendered lease, for which there were two applicants, namely, the Hon. Algernon Bourke and Captain Perceval. The meeting resolved to accept the application of the former, and the committee were empowered to deal with his propositions. The Earl of Craven was elected member of the club.

17 October 1888, Wednesday, the Sheffield Daily Telegraph reported about uncertainty about White's:

There seems to be still some uncertainty as to the future of White's club. This, the oldest of London club-houses, rendered immortal by Thackeray and others, has suffered in the struggle for existence with the newer and more attractive institutions which have sprung up all round it within the last few years. The chief capitalist in the club is Lord Cheylesmore, who would be most re’luctant to see it come to grief. Happily, Mr. Algernon Bourke, an enterprising gentleman, who is a stockbroker, a correspondent of the Times, and a very popular man about town, came to the rescue, and is now reorganising the institution. White’s, in future, is to be of the recreative class of clubs, but whetber members will be provided with dancing as at the New Club in Covent Garden, or music, as they are promised at the Lyric and the Meistersingers, or whether it be true that it is to have an athletic department, no one seems to know. However, for the present, the house is closed, and workmen are employed in decorating the interior.

27 October 1888, Saturday, a London Correspondent in the Brighouse and Rastrick Gazette reported about White's Club,

There is some danger, I hear, of White's Club being involved in a lawsuit. Mr. Algernon Bourke is engaged in making extensive alterations and additions to the house, and one of the neighbours objects to the addition of a room on the ground that it interferes with his "ancient lights." I believe, however, that Mr. Bourke knows what he is about, and that he is pretty certain to win the day if the matter is brought into court. There is a report, but I cannot vouch for its accuracy, that Prince Edie will become a member.

1889

Richard D'Oyly Carte hired the French chef from White's for the Savoy Hotel restaurant.

1893

The Newcastle Chronicle described White's in November 1893 in discussing Algernon Bourke's book on White's' history:

It is true the fires are lighted at the clubs, the winter carpets have been laid down, portieres are drawn over draughty doorways, and books in tempting bindings are more and more en [sic] evidence. One of the most lavishly illustrated books I have seen for a long time is the history of "White's." It must have cost a little fortune to produce. It is in two volumes, exquisitely printed, and the matter is most readable. But this is evidently quite a private enterprise. The publisher is the Hon. Algernon Bourke, and the work is issued from his private house in St. James's Street. There has also appeared, or is about to appear, the true and particular history of "Brooks's." Clubland will soon have no secrets left, except, of course, those current ones that may not be told, not only in deference to good taste, but out of a wholesome fear of the law of libel. There are several stories of "Crockford's" in the volume about "White's." One of them deals with the Lord Sefton of the time, who was a great epicure. He prided himself on the invention of a plat made of the soft roe of the mackerel. He was one of the principal victims at Crockford's, where at one time and another he lost £200,000 at play. His successor honoured an acceptance of his for £40,000 held by Crockford and presented after his death. The property in Manchester and Liverpool that was sold to meet his losses would today be valued at millions sterling.

Notable Wagers.

Long before these new and private guides to "White's" and "Brooks's," there appeared in the "Art Journal" some sketches of Clubland, that let a good deal of permissible daylight into the more mysterious corners of the social quarters of the country. If the author only professed to loiter upon the frontiers, he nevertheless made several interesting excursions into the very heart of the territory. In regard to the laws and regulations of one of the great West End houses, he fell into a trifling mistake which one of the long-eyed birds of criticism picked out with his sharp beak and exhibited to the world. It was the merest shadow of a technical error and it proved the truth of the rest: it was the very smallest "exception to prove the rule" you can imagine. A distinguished correspondent, a member of "White's," who recalls the book and is good enough to say he is "delighted with the flavour of last week's Cigarette Papers," sends me several fresh notes from the bet book at the famous club. Two of them are well worth repeating. On November 4, 1754, Lord Mountfort wagered Sir John Bland 100 guineas that Mr. Nash would outlive Mr. Cibber. The two men in queetion were Colley Cibber and Bean Nash, the "King of Bath," then very old men. Below the entry in the bet book to this day stands the record:— "Both Lord Mountford and Sir John Bland put an end to their lives before the bet was decided." Among the curious bets of a comparatively recent date was that of Lord Alvanley, who wagered Mr. Goddard "that Mr. G. Talbot does not die a natural death." Talbot retaliated by betting "that Lord Alvanley is not worth three shillings this day two years."

Summer Club

On 29 June 1896, Monday, Algernon Bourke wrote the Daily Telegraph about the Summer Club:

To the Editor of “The Daily Telegraph.”

Sir — Permit me to make my bow to the public. I am the manager of the Summer Club, which on two occasions has been the subject of Ministerial interpellation in Parliament. The Summer Club is a small combination, which conceived the idea of attempting to make life more pleasant in London by organising breakfast, luncheon, and teas in Kensington Gardens for its members. This appears to have given offence in some way to Dr. Tanner, with the result that the catering arrangements of the club are now "by order" thrown open to the public. No one is more pleased than I am at the result of the doctor's intervention, for it shows that the idea the Summer Club had of using the parks for something more than mere right of way bas been favourably received. In order, however, that the great British public may not be disappointed, should they all come to lunch at once, I think it necessary to explain that the kitchen, which by courtesy of the lessee of the kiosk our cook was permitted to use, is only 10ft by 5ft; it has also to serve as a scullery and pantry, and the larder, from which our luxurious viands are drawn, is a four-wheeled cab, which comes up every day with the food and returns after lunch with the scraps. Nevertheless, the Summer Club says to the British public — What we have we will share with you, though it don't amount to very much — I am, Sir, your obedient servant,

ALGERNON BOURKE.

White's Club, June 27

On 1896 June 20, Saturday, Lady Violet Greville wrote against the Summer Club in her column "Place aux Dames" in The Graphic:

LONDON in this hot weather takes upon itself a continental aspect. The park is full of people sitting on chairs in fragile summer garments, carriages with brilliant occupants flit to and fro, and all the out-door resorts are crowded. Battersea Park has lost its short-lived popularity, but Kensington Gardens, hitherto given over to nursemaids, has assumed a transient splendour conferred upon it by Mr. Algernon Bourke's tea kiosk, which is much patronised in the afternoon. But on what principle a-specially reserved enclosure in a public park is to be given over to White's club one fails to understand. Perhaps the paradise of straw armchairs and Japanese umbrellas surrounded by a halo of flowering rhododendrons in pots may rouse unnecessary envy in the breasts of the Peris cast out of such a paradise, otherwise it seems as if armchairs and umbrellas might also be supplied to the general public without hurting the too keen susceptibilities of the languid denizens of White's club. Any way the precedent is a bad one, for if White's, why not the Junior Carlton or Brooks's, or the Tooting and Clapham bicycle clubs, and in that case if all clubs may have reserved enclosures, what becomes of the public park?

On 4 July 1896, Saturday, "Marmaduke" in the Graphic took Bourke's side on the Summer Club in Kensington Park:

Most of us have noticed that if we read in the newspapers the account of some matter which we are personally acquainted with the account will generally contain several errors. I have also noticed that when a question is asked in the House of Commons regarding some matter about which I know all the facts the question and the official answer to it frequently contain serious errors. Last week Mr. Akers-Douglas was asked in the House to explain how it was that Mr. Algernon Bourke obtained permission to open the "Summer Club" in Kensington Gardens, and he was questioned upon other particulars connected with the same matter. Both the questions and the official reply showed considerable ignorance of the facts. There has been from time immemorial a refreshment kiosk in Kensington Gardens. Mr. Bourke obtained from the tenant of this permission to use the kitchen for the benefit of the "Summer Club," and to supply the members of the latter with refreshments. It was a purely commercial transaction. Mr. Bourke then established some wicker seats, a few tables, a tent, and a small hut upon a lawn in the neighbourhood of the kiosk. To do this he must have obtained the permission of Mr. Akers-Douglas, as obviously he would otherwise have been immediately ordered to remove them. Mr. Akers-Douglas equally obviously would not have given his sanction unless he had been previously informed of the objects which Mr. Bourke had in view — to wit, that the latter intended to establish a club there. That being the case, it is difficult to understand for what reason Mr. Akers-Douglas has now decided that any member of the public can use the chairs, tables, and tent belonging to the "Summer Club," can insist upon the club servants attending upon him, and can compel them to supply him with refreshments. Mr. Akers-Douglas should have thought of the consequences before he granted the permission.

1899

In 1899 White's was no longer under Algernon Bourke's management and was reconstituting itself after the possibility that it would have to close:

White's Club has narrowly escaped closing its doors. Like many of the other leading West End clubs, it has suffered grievously of late years owing to the growth of the fashion of dining at hotel restaurants. The principal proprietor was Mr Algernon Bourke, Lord Mayo's uncle, and his interest has now been made the subject of pecuniary adjustment. It is now being reconstituted as a member's club, and a new manager is in charge, aided by an energetic and discriminating committee. The fact that the late committee was inclined to be rather too discriminate was one of the causes of the troubled waters into which the club drifted, for it is possible to be too exclusive, even for White's, especially in view of the competition that exists nowadays in clubdom — as everywhere else. Many members had resigned, but most of them are now anxious to return, and the membership list is in future to be extended to 755.

In September 1899 the Oxford Chronicle and Berks and Bucks Gazette reported,

The new secretary of White's, Mr. Mark Weyland, is the only surviving son of Mr. Weyland, of Wood Eaton a house pleasantly situated on the Cherwell, close to Oxford. His elder brother died of a fever contracted while soldiering in Egypt during the Tel-el-Kehir campaign.

Mr. Mark Wayland is a nephew of Lord Clanricarde and Lady Cork, and a great grandson of the great George Canning. The members of White's now made all arrangements for buying out Mr. Algernon Bourke, and the club will henceforth be a members' club and not proprietary.

Bourke underwent bankruptcy proceedings in 1899, after attempting to close Willis' Restaurant, Ltd., which left him liable for perhaps £9,000, at least £5,000 was owed to White's.

Willis's

Ralph Nevill says in 1912,

It is a matter of regret that the peaceful and quiet Willis's in King Street has ceased to exist. Opened in 1893, it at first achieved considerable success. The moving spirit in its management was Mr. Algernon Bourke, who, in his time, has done many things, some of them very well. It was intended, I believe, to resemble the defunct Amphitryon Club in the matter of cuisine and wines; and, like the latter resort, its frequenters mostly belonged to the fashionable world. Besides the restaurant proper, there were several private rooms, and latterly an unsuccessful experiment was made with a supper club.

Windham

11 St. James's Square

Bibliography

• Milne-Smith, Amy. London Clubland: A Cultural History of Gender and Class in late-Victorian England. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011. Google Books: https://books.google.com/books?id=TQrHAAAAQBAJ.
• Thom, Adam Bisset, compiler. The Upper Ten Thousand: An Alphabetical List of All Members of Noble Families, Bishops, Privy Councillors, Judges, Baronets, Members of the House of Commons, Lords-Lieutenant, Governors of Colonies, Knights and Companions of Orders, Deans and Archdeacons, and the Superior Officers of the Army and Navy, with Their Official Descriptions and Addresses. London: George Routledge and Sons, 1875. Google Books.