Social Victorians/London Clubs

Cliques and Social Networks

• The Marlborough House Set
• The Souls
• The Coterie

Flourishing and Address as of 1875

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.

Beaufort

7 Rathbone Place, Oxford Street, W.

Boodle's

28 St. James's Street

Brooks'

60 St. James's Street

Burlington Fine Arts

17 Savile Row, W.

Carlton

94 Pall Mall

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.

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.

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

Marlborough

52 Pall Mall

Medical

9 Spring Gardens, S. W.

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.

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 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.

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.

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."

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.