CHAPTER XXVI
St. James's Street, West Side, Existing Buildings
No. 61 St. James's Street
Previous history of this site is described on page 542
No. 61 St. James's Street was reconstructed in
1933, the architects being Messrs. T. Jay Evans
and Son of Victoria Street, in collaboration with
William Walcot of Tite Street (Plate 277b). The
designs were exhibited at the Royal Academy in
the spring of 1933. (ref. 1)
For the front of the building, Portland stone
was used for the ground storey and for dressing the
brown brick upper face. A wide and shallow bay
window, metal-framed, projects from the ground
storey, with metal-framed glass doors on the right,
and the old doorway to No. 62 on the left. The
design of the two-storeyed upper face reflects, in a
curiously distorted manner, the central feature of
Boodle's front, nearly opposite. In the middle of
the second storey is a wide bow window of shallow
projection, divided into three lights—wide between narrow—by simple Doric pilasters which
support a fluted architrave and a frieze carved with
a figure subject in low relief, in a sunk panel
flanked by lion-head stops. Over the bow is a
squat semi-circular arched window of the same
width, its brick arch having a female mask keystone. On each side of the second-storey bow
window is a plain sashed window with a gauged
flat arch, and above is a circular light, radially
glazed. The narrow return front to Park Place
has a metal-framed bay window rising through the
semi-basement and ground storey, recessed between stone piers, and in each upper storey is a
single flat-arched window (that in the third storey
a recent addition).
No. 63 St. James's Street
Previous history of this site is described on page 459
The present building at No. 63 St. James's
Street (Plate 276d) was erected upon the site of
Fenton's Hotel between 1886 and 1888. The
architects were Messrs. Davis and Emanuel
of Finsbury Circus, and the builders were Messrs.
Colls and Sons of Moorgate Street. (ref. 2)
The building was designed to house the Meistersingers Club, whose rooms on the first and
second floors comprised a concert hall with
dressing-rooms, a smoking-room, small diningroom, drawing-room and billiard-room. They
were reached by a separate staircase from the
passageway to Blue Ball Yard which ran through
the southernmost bay of the building. The ground
floor and basement were to be used as business
premises, and were originally entered through a
doorway in the central bay of the street front. The
doorway in the northernmost bay provided a
separate entrance to the bachelor chambers on
the third and fourth floors. The fifth floor housed
service rooms for the chambers on the floors
below. (ref. 3)
The carving on the façade was by Gilbert Scale
of Thurlow Street, Walworth. (ref. 3) The cast-iron
chimneypieces in the club rooms were made by the
Coalbrookdale Iron Company; one was designed
by Alfred Stevens and another by Maurice B.
Adams. (ref. 4) The building was completed in July
1888. (ref. 3)
The Meistersingers Club occupied the building
for only a few years and was followed in 1894 by
the Royal Societies Club, which remained there
until about 1941. (ref. 5) In 1935 the central doorway
on the street front was replaced by a bay window. (ref. 6)
In 1945 the building was taken over for use as
offices by John Walker and Sons, distillers. (ref. 7)
The front of this building rises for five lofty
storeys, all with round-arched windows, the first
four storeys being divided into five bays, and the
fifth reduced to three with the middle one surmounted by a two-light dormer, backed by a steep
pavilion roof crested with ironwork. The second
and fourth bays are strongly accented, by canted
bay windows rising through the second and third
storeys to finish with equilateral pediments, and
by Corinthian pilasters embracing the fourth and
fifth storeys to support Baroque entablatures. The
wide middle bay is treated with some reticence in
the second and third storeys, but in the fourth and
fifth is a great moulded arch enclosing a bay window below a three-light lunette. The two-light
dormer above is flanked by inverted consoles and
crowned with an equilateral pediment having a
spiky finial. But no description can give a true
idea of the ingenuity and perverted taste displayed
in this extraordinary front, which looks rather like
a late Victorian music-hall designed by a latterday disciple of Dietterling, although its vulgarity
is somewhat redeemed by the use of Portland stone
throughout.
Blue Ball Yard
The formation of Blue Ball Yard is described
on page 460.
In 1741–2 Charles Godolphin's heir, Lord
Francis Godolphin, had wine vaults and stables
built at the rear of his houses in St. James's Street.
In 1742 and in subsequent years he was rated for
these at £105 per annum. (ref. 8) They are almost certainly the picturesque L-shaped range of buildings of two storeys on the south and west sides of
Blue Ball Yard (Plate 266c). The lower storey
contains the coach-houses and is fronted by a
series of large double-doors, mostly modern.
About half-way along the south range rises a stair
which branches left and right, giving access to the
external galleries serving the second storey. This
contains the living accommodation and its simple
front of whitened brick has an irregular sequence
of doors and windows, some segmental-arched and
some straight-headed. The tiled roof has a slight
overhang and its western part contains a dormer
window which, with the three-light window in
the storey below, was probably inserted during the
tenancy of Mr. Louis de Soissons, the architect.
Nos. 66–67 St. James's Street and No. 1 St. James's Place
Previous history of this site is described on pages 511–12
The block of residential chambers and business
premises at Nos. 66–67 St. James's Street and
No. 1 St. James's Place (Plate 276a) was built in
1899–1900 from the designs of Robert J. Worley,
of Lincoln's Inn Fields. The ground floor was
originally divided into three shops. In 1921 the
shop at No. 66 was taken over by the London
Joint City and Midland Bank and a number of
alterations were made to the shop-front shortly
afterwards. (ref. 9)
The building is a hotch-potch of 'Elizabethan'
motifs, a typical work of R. J. Worley who also
designed Nos. 31–35 Bury Street and Nos. 19–21a Ryder Street (see page 315), where the
materials are similar to those used here—hard red
brick and unglazed terra-cotta of an unpleasant
orange hue. (fn. a) The brickwork is set in a flush
framework of terra-cotta quoins and bands, and
all the windows are divided by mullions and transoms of terra-cotta, this material being used also
for the cornices, balconies and battlements.
The ground storey is arcaded and fairly orthodox, but the four-storeyed superstructure is
extravagantly modelled. In the short length of the
St. James's Street front there is a recessed face,
with two windows in each storey opening to
heavy balustraded balconies, between a tower-like
bow on the north, with a five-light window in
each storey and a conical roof, and a tall square
tower on the south corner of the building, corbelled out from the ground storey and having one
window per storey in each face, its top storey
crested with corbelled battlements and a tourelle
projecting from its north-east angle, rising to a
high finish with battlements surrounding an
'extinguisher' roof. The front to St. James's Place
(where Worley's original intentions were frustrated by the requirements of the London County
Council) is longer, with the design of the main
front repeated, but the central bow has only two
storeys, there are no balconies at fourth-floor
level, and the western bow serves only the third
storey, being finished with a conical roof merging
into the wall face above.<Demolished October 1978.>
No. 68 St. James's Street
Previous history of this site is described on pages 511–12
Messrs. Chubb and Sons have occupied No. 68
St. James's Street since about 1875. In 1900–1
they rebuilt the premises as a shop and residential
chambers from the designs of Charles H. Mileham
of Lincoln's Inn Fields. (ref. 10)
Mileham's building, of bright red brick,
echoes, with early Georgian overtones, the design
of its predecessor as shown by Tallis in 1839.
Again there is a canted bay window, now rising
through the second, third and fourth storeys, the
last two flanked by Ionic pilasters which rise from
the continued sill of the third-storey windows,
with scrolled cartouches below to act as corbels.
Each pilaster carries a full entablature, the modillioned cornice of which is carried round the bay
and surmounted by a pedestal parapet. The attic
storey has three round-arched windows, with plain
imposts and archivolts, and above the top cornice
is a pedestal parapet with recessed sections above
each window, giving the attic a Vanbrughian
appearance. In sharp contrast with the superstructure the shop-front is entirely Victorian with
five slender cast-iron columns, having spirally
banded shafts and Corinthianesque capitals,
dividing the four bays, and supporting the painted
glass fascia.
Nos. 69–70 St. James's Street: the
Carlton Club
Previous history of this site, which was occupied successively by White's and Miles's Club, is described on page
463. The existing building was occupied from 1827 until
1940 by Arthur's Club
At a meeting held on 8 May 1811 at No. 16 St.
James's Street it was resolved 'That a New Club
be forthwith established, to consist of 300 Members.' It was also resolved that the subscription
should be fifteen guineas for the first year and subsequently ten guineas, and a committee was
established to manage the affairs of the club, which
took the name of Arthur's. This committee consisted of eleven noblemen and gentlemen, of whom
six were Scots—Lord Montgomerie, the Hon.
Archibald Macdonald, the Hon. James Macdonald, Sir David Hunter Blair, baronet (son of
Sir James Hunter Blair, the banker and friend of
Robert Burns), (ref. 11) his brother James Hunter Blair
(later M.P. for Wigtonshire), and Thomas Harvie
Farquhar, a member of the banking firm of
Herries and Co., at whose premises in St. James's
Street the meeting was held. (ref. 12) The other five
members of the committee were LieutenantColonel John James, tenth Earl Waldegrave, the
Hon. Thomas Brand, M.P., William Jones, Sir
Charles Burrell, baronet, M.P. for Shoreham, and
Walter Burrell, both members of the Sussex landowning family. The first ballot for the election of
members was held on 12 May 1811, when eightyseven members were elected. On 1 June a
secretary, John Davall, was appointed, and on
1 November 1811 No. 69 St. James's Street was
opened for members' use. (ref. 13)
The meeting held on 8 May 1811 is of cardinal
importance in the history of the West End clubs
of London, for the society then established appears
to have been the first members', as opposed to proprietary club, i.e., a club owned and entirely managed by the members or their employees, and in its
constitution Arthur's may therefore be regarded
as the forerunner of all the other great members'
clubs subsequently established in the neighbourhood. (fn. b)
The choice of name, Arthur's, has led some
writers to believe that the new club was founded
very much earlier than 1811. (ref. 15) There is, however, no evidence of any connexion between it and
Miles's, or between Miles's and White's (or
Arthur's as it had sometimes been called), both of
which had previously occupied the site of No. 69,
and the name appears to have been adopted as a
reminiscence of Robert Arthur, the celebrated
former proprietor of the club-house. In the early
nineteenth century most West End clubs were
named after their proprietors or former proprietors
(e.g., White's, Brooks's, Boodle's); as the new
club had no proprietor it was not unnatural that its
members should hark back for a name to earlier
days when the house had been kept by Robert
Arthur.
For some years the club occupied the house
built after the fire of 1733 (see page 464). The
Crown lease, which had been renewed to Sarah
White in 1775 and had subsequently been assigned
by her to William Ogden, was due to expire at
Michaelmas 1824, (ref. 16) and in 1821 the Commissioners of Woods and Forests decided not to
renew the lease to Ogden's representatives. (ref. 17) This
decision was probably caused by the Commissioners' wish to sort out the confused intermixture
of Crown land and privately owned land behind
No. 69. The bow at the back of the house had
been built (probably during Miles's tenancy) on
freehold land formerly part of the Pulteney estate
(which by the nineteenth century had passed to
Sir Richard Sutton) and, so long as the house stood
on land belonging to two different ground landlords, its rebuilding would be a matter of some
complexity. In 1821 the club applied to the Commissioners for a building lease, but the latter
shortly afterwards embarked upon negotiations
with Sir Richard Sutton for the exchange of a
number of pieces of land intermixed in the neighbourhood, and in consequence they were not able
to make any long-term arrangements. This delay
evidently caused dissatisfaction amongst members
of the club, some of whom in December 1824
summoned a general meeting 'to consider of the
necessity of taking immediate steps for purchasing
or building a more suitable House for the accommodation of . . . Members'. By the summer of
1826 the club had possessed itself of the leases of
No. 70 St. James's Street, which stood on Crown
land, and of a number of small houses and yards
behind Nos. 69–70 which had hitherto belonged
to Sir Richard Sutton (ref. 17) and in July the Commissioners' negotiations with the latter were sufficiently advanced for them to offer the club terms
for a ninety-nine-year lease. (ref. 18) The deed of exchange with Sir Richard Sutton was not finally
completed until 1830, (ref. 19) and by an oversight on
the part of the Commissioners the club did not
receive its lease until 1842. (ref. 20)
The whole of the site on which the new clubhouse was built belonged to the Crown, and had a
frontage of 49 feet to St. James's Street and a depth
of some 165 feet. Thomas Hopper's plans for the
new club-house were submitted to the Commissioners in July 1826, the building materials of
the old houses were sold by auction at the end of
the month, and the club found temporary quarters
at 'Wirgman's late house' in St. James's Street. (ref. 17)
(fn. c)
Hopper's designs (Plate 66a) for the elevation
were considerably modified at the suggestion of
the Commissioners' architects, Thomas Chawner
and Henry Rhodes. Hopper proposed a building
of two principal storeys, the lower being a five-bay
arcade of rusticated stonework. The entrance in
the most northerly bay had a Roman Doric porch,
which was repeated in front of the southernmost
window, the entablature with its decorated frieze
being continued across the ground storey. The
upper storey had an engaged order of fluted
Corinthian columns supporting an entablature
having above its modillion cornice a balustrade
divided by plain dies. The tall first-floor windows
had pediments, alternately triangular and segmental, supported on brackets. In front an
ornamental balustrade extended between the
columns. (ref. 22)
The Commissioners' architects took exception
to Hopper's proposal for 'a Garret Storey in a lofty
Kirb Roof above the Ballustrade', and to the
Doric columns at ground-floor level. In their
first report on the design they stated that the
garret storey 'appeared to us objectionable, and
thinking at the same time, that the general proportions of the elevation would allow of its being
raised so as to screen the garret windows, and that
the detached columns on the entrance storey
might be dispensed with, as apparently intercepting
the view from parts of the front Coffee Room; we
drew out and transmitted to the Surveyor of the
Club, the elevation . . . We understand from him,
that finding himself enabled to dispense with the
garret windows, and to lower the Roof, that the
Club are desirous of leaving the elevation as it was
originally presented, with this alteration only'. (ref. 17)
On 27 November the Commissioners gave their
consent to the amended designs. The columns on
the ground storey are not mentioned; they were
not built. (ref. 23) A contract for the erection of the
building for £17,235 had been signed in September with Mr. Martin, perhaps Thomas Martin,
builder, of Osnaburgh Street. (ref. 24)
In December a misunderstanding arose between
the Commissioners and the club over the omission
or inclusion of the Doric columns on the entrance
storey, and the former wrote to the club saying
that they had heard that deviations were being
made and asking for revised plans. A new elevation with the columns omitted was submitted in
January 1827. (ref. 17) Chawner and Rhodes then
suggested that the pediments to the windows of
the principal storey should be omitted and a 'plain
Blocking over the Cornice of those windows be
substituted'; they also suggested that 'the Balustrades in front of the Windows should be detached
from the Shafts of the Columns [on the principal
floor] as Basket Balconies with rounded corners'. (ref. 25)
Shortly afterwards Hopper conferred with Chawner and Rhodes and agreed to detach the balconies from the columns; the objection to the
pediments over the windows appears to have been
waived. (ref. 17)
The front as it was finally built, of Portland
stone, is much better than might have been
expected (Plate 66b). Omission of the Doric
order certainly improved the ground storey, now
finished with a plain cornice, the entrance being
merely one of the five similar arched openings in
the rusticated face. The balustrades to the firstfloor windows are simpler than those first intended: they are contained by rectangular dies.
The basement is entirely below ground level and
the railings to the front area, with their two lamp
standards, are exceptionally plain. The lack of
any sort of emphasis at the entrance or in the
centre of the building is remarkable.
The plan (fig. 78) provides two main rooms
on each floor, one in front and another in a wing
at the rear. There is a large, central staircase hall
with a service stair to the north of it and a small
room at the back of that. The entrance hall is
little more than a wide passage and passes beside
the front room and then behind it. It is divided
into six nearly square compartments which reduce
its apparent length. The first two are separated by
a glazed screen and the third contains a plain
chimneypiece of grey marble. The two compartments behind the front room are separated by
semi-circular arches and have groined vaults; the
other compartments have flat panelled ceilings.
Figure 78:
Carlton Club (formerly Arthur's), St. James's Street, plans
The front room, intended as the coffee-room,
is plainly but effectively decorated. The walls
above the chair-rail are divided into panels with
recessed mouldings; there is a modillion cornice
and a ceiling with deeply sunk panels. The simple
chimneypiece is of gold-veined black marble. The
doors, like those to all the principal rooms, are of
mahogany.
The large back room is also panelled above the
chair-rail, this time with enriched mouldings.
The ceiling is beamed, and both it and the entablature to the room are richly ornamented, the frieze
having a pattern of vine leaves. The doorcases
have architraves decorated with rosettes and are
corniced; there are fine but heavy chimneypieces
of gold-veined black marble, the piers being
decorated with ram heads linked by festoons of
vine, and ending with lion-paw feet.
The small rear room has a segmental bay window, divided into three lights by pilasters. The
decoration is similar to that in the last room and
the entablature is overlaid with ivy and vine leaf
decoration. The chimneypiece, again of goldveined black marble, has Roman Doric columns
supporting a very plain architrave and corniceshelf. Both the rear rooms, which were originally
dining-rooms, are reached through a small groinvaulted lobby.
In the main staircase hall the lower walls are
plain with round-arched openings. A gallery runs
across at first-floor level, supported on simple
brackets, and Hopper originally intended the stair
to ascend in single flights against the walls. As
built, it consists of two flights which meet, continue in a single flight and then divide again (the
Army and Navy Club staircase is similar). It is
constructed of stone with a mahogany handrail
supported on a cast-iron balustrade of undistinguished design, which may have been heightened.
The newel posts at the bottom of the stair are
remarkably clumsy. The upper walls are panelled
and the three-light window is framed by pilasters
supporting a pediment, a feature which is repeated
opposite to frame the door to the service staircase.
There is a richly decorated frieze below the cornice and both the flat ceiling and the dome are
divided by plain ribs into coffers containing
rosettes (Plate 67a).
In the library (the front room on the first floor,
Plate 67c) the walls are divided into bays by
Corinthian pilasters with plain shafts of scagliola
imitating Siena marble. The frieze of the entablature has rich scroll decoration and there is a
modillion cornice, the ceiling being divided by
guilloche-decorated beams into oblong and square
compartments. The two monumental chimneypieces are of the same dark marble as those on the
ground floor. Between the pilasters are tall pedimented bookcases of mahogany, the doorcase
being finished in the same manner. Both the front
and rear rooms are approached through small
rectangular lobbies which have low, elliptical
domes.
The rear room (Plate 67b), formerly the
drawing-room, has plain walls, the three-light
window being dressed with Corinthian pilasters
having plain shafts of 'Brocatello' scagliola. There
is a richly decorated frieze and above the cornice
is a small cove with a free-standing border of
anthemion and rosettes, surrounding the ceiling,
where a large rectangular panel is filled with a
pattern of light mouldings and other enrichments
arranged in a radial pattern. The two chimneypieces are of white marble and have pilasters at
the sides and scroll ornament in the frieze. The
small rear room has a similar but plainer ceiling
and is fitted in a simple manner. The chimneypiece of red and black veined marble has a shelf
supported by brackets.
The detail of the interior decoration of the club
is mostly taken from Greek sources, the plaster
work having been carried out under Hopper's
direction by Francis Bernasconi. (ref. 26) There is a
certain amount of painted marble and graining
which may perpetuate the original decorative
finish.
In 1925–6 very extensive renovations, including the provision of bedrooms, were undertaken,
the roof being raised to a height considerably
greater than that which had been objected to in
the original design of 1826. The architect was
E. Turner Powell.
Arthur's finally closed its doors in the spring of
1940; (ref. 27) the building has been occupied by the
Carlton Club since shortly after the destruction of
that club's premises in Pall Mall by enemy action
in October 1940. None of the original furniture
of Arthur's Club now remains in the building.
Nos. 71–73 (consec.) St. James's Street
The site of Nos. 71–73 (consec.) St. James's
Street and 3–6 (consec.) Little St. James's Street
was cleared in 1908, and a new block of buildings
completed in the following year. (ref. 28) The architects
were William Woodward and Sons of Southampton Street, Strand, and the builders Messrs. Perry
and Co. Ltd. of Bow. The upper floors were designed as residential chambers and the ground floor
and basement as a shop for Rumpelmayer's
celebrated confiserie. (ref. 29)
This building was designed in the 'François
Premier' style, perhaps to suit Rumpelmayer's
salons-de-thé. The firm of Prunier have since
modernized the ground-storey windows for their
restaurant, but the northernmost shop-front and
the whole upper part of the building is unchanged.
This upper part contains three storeys of equal
height in the stone-faced fronts, and two storeys
within the tall slated roof. The composition of the
St. James's Street front is curiously similar to that
of Worley's 'Elizabethan' building at Nos. 66–67,
with a recessed centre, two windows wide, between a canted bay on the north and a flat bay on
the south, with balconies linking the bays, and an
octagonal oriel projecting from the southern corner of the building. The treatment, however, is
far more elegant, each storey being underlined by a
gently articulated pedestal, with panelled dies
carved with lion-head roundels below the windows, which are flanked by Corinthian pilasters,
their shafts panelled with lozenge-shapes in the
centre. The balconies linking the bows are of
stone, with slightly bowed fronts furnished with
ornamental iron railings, and every window in the
oriel—there are three to each storey—is furnished
with its own segmental iron-railed balcony. The
front is finished with a full entablature, having a
modillioned cornice, and above each bay rises an
elaborate stone dormer, its round-arched window
flanked by pilasters and finished with an entablature. Over the recessed centre are two dormers
with triangular pediments, and there is an upper
range of three plain dormers. The front towards
Little St. James's Street is divided into two bays
per storey, the eastern one plain and the western
containing two windows.
In January 1935 the Parisian firm of Prunier
opened their London restaurant on the ground
floor of these premises. (ref. 30) The street front and interior had been re-designed for them by J. P.
Mongeaud of Paris, in collaboration with Messrs.
W. Henry White and Sons of Cavendish Place.
Messrs. W. Curtis Green and Partners were also
concerned in the work as architects to the head
lessees. The contractors were the Bartlett Trust
Ltd. (ref. 31) The marine decorations which formed a
distinctive feature of the interior were the work of
Colette Geuden of Paris. (ref. 32)
No. 74 St. James's Street
Previous history of this site is described on pages 466–8
The existing building was formerly occupied by the Conservative Club. In 1950 the Conservative Club merged
with the Bath Club, which continued to occupy it until
1959
The first recorded meeting of the provisional
committee of the Conservative Club was held on
29 July 1840 at No. 20 Curzon Street, Mayfair,
the house of Quintin Dick, member of Parliament
for Maldon, who took the chair. This committee
had evidently had at least one previous unrecorded
meeting, and the negative answer which was sent a
few days later to an enquirer who asked 'if this
Club be the same that was set on foot two years
ago' indicates that there had been an earlier
attempt to found a new political club. (ref. 33)
Those present at the meeting held on 29 July
1840 were Quintin Dick, Viscount Castlereagh,
W. S. Blackstone, the Hon. Captain Duncombe,
Thomas Hawkes, W. A. Mackinnon and John
Neeld (all members of Parliament), and P. D.
Pauncefort Duncombe, Charles Hopkinson and
Thomas Walford. At this meeting Lord Ingestre
was elected to the committee and Edward Charles
Hampton was appointed secretary; a sub-committee was established to find temporary quarters
for the club. (ref. 34)
The Conservative Club has been described as
'an ancillary society designed for those who were
unable to gain admission immediately to the
crowded membership of the Carlton. It is clear,
however, that it also possessed something of the
nature of a dissident opposition body and was
regarded as such by the party managers.' In September 1840 it included only ten members of the
House of Lords and twenty-seven of the House of
Commons, and 'with two ducal exceptions hardly
a man among them of even average influence'. (ref. 35)
Of those present at the meeting on 29 July 1840,
only one, W. A. Mackinnon (1789–1870), member of Parliament for most of the period 1830–65,
is mentioned in The Dictionary of National
Biography. W. S. Blackstone was an ultra-Tory
who represented Wallingford and was noted for his
intransigent independence; John Neeld represented Cricklade and was a member of an influential landowning family in Wiltshire, and
Viscount Ingestre had similar connexions with
Staffordshire, the southern division of which he
represented. (ref. 36)
The next meeting of the committee was held on
4 August 1840 at the Lansdowne Hotel in Dover
Street, which appears to have been used as a temporary home for the club. In October the committee agreed with C. G. English for the purchase
of the lease of his hotel at No. 88 St. James's
Street (the Royal Hotel or St. James's Royal
Hotel, see page 470) and the club moved into this
house on 1 January 1841. The first general
meeting, at which the rules of the club were
approved, was held in May. (ref. 37)
A few months earlier, in August 1840, negotiations began for the acquisition of the site on which
the Conservative club-house was later erected. (ref. 38)
It included property with a frontage of about
90 feet to St. James's Street which had been
leased by the Crown to the Grosvenor family in
1810, and on which stood the Thatched House
Tavern, most of Thatched House Court and six
small shops in front of the tavern. (ref. 39) Between the
north side of this property and the south side of
Little St. James's Street (previously Catherine
Wheel Yard or Street) stood two houses with a
frontage of 50 feet to St. James's Street. (ref. 40) About
20 feet of this frontage was taken into Little St.
James's Street. (ref. 41) The rest was taken by the Conservative Club, together with some land in the
rear which had been part of the Pulteney estate
but had come into the possession of the Crown by
exchange in 1830. (ref. 42)
The ground which the Conservative Club
sought to purchase thus had a frontage to St.
James's Street of 118 feet and a depth on its north
side of 171 feet and included the greater part of
Thatched House Court. Two of the subsisting
Crown leases had unexpired terms of some length
and the acquisition of all the interests involved
proved so complicated that Decimus Burton was
called in to advise the club. (ref. 43) The possibility of
erecting a new building on the site of the club's
temporary premises at English's hotel at the corner of St. James's Street and Cleveland Row was
considered, (ref. 44) and in August 1841 the committee
investigated 'the probability of obtaining the
present Carlton Club House' in Pall Mall. (ref. 4)
However, the purchase of the Thatched House
Tavern and adjoining premises was completed
early in 1842, when the Commissioners of Woods
and Forests agreed to grant a new lease of the
whole site. (ref. 46)
At a general meeting of the club held on 5 February 1842 it was decided that the choice of the
architect of the new club-house should be left to
the committee. The committee decided to invite
not more than six architects to send in plans from
which the final selection should be made. William Ormsby Gore, member of Parliament for
Shropshire, who had played a leading part in the
management of the club, then refused to have any
share in the selection, 'as there had been various
insinuations of jobbing going on in this appointment'; he advocated the employment of Decimus
Burton, who had arranged for the purchase of the
site and was 'standing architect of three among the
principal Clubs of the Metropolis'. (fn. d) Burton,
however, refused to enter the proposed competition or to send in an account for the services
which he had already rendered to the club, and
when Ormsby Gore was asked to settle with Burton, he too refused 'in consequence of his considering that Gentleman as very ill used'. (ref. 47)
On 8 March the committee decided to invite
George Basevi, Thomas Hopper, William Railton
and Sydney Smirke to submit designs. While the
plans were being prepared the committee received
a letter from the Carlton Club asking 'whether
any arrangement could be made for the acquisition
by the Carlton Club of the ground in St. James's
Street late the Thatched House Tavern'. (ref. 48) The
request was evidently refused.
The choice of architect was made at a meeting
of the committee held on 16 June 1842. Seventeen members were present, and the absentees had
been permitted to vote by proxy. It was resolved
'that in the first instance, two out of the four
[architects] should be selected, and afterwards
the two selected should be again put for ballot'.
At the first ballot (in which proxy votes were
included) Smirke received thirteen votes, Basevi
ten, Railton six and Hopper two. At the second
ballot (in which there were no proxy votes) Smirke
and Basevi each received eight votes and were
therefore appointed joint architects. A building
committee was then established. It consisted of
Lord de L'lsle, Quintin Dick, Joseph Neeld,
Pauncefort Duncombe, Brereton Trelawny,
Thomas Walford and the trustees of the club;
William Ormsby Gore subsequently became
chairman. (ref. 49)
The contractors for the new building were
Messrs. Baker and Son, whose tender was for
£28,670. In May 1843 the committee decided
that the exterior should be faced with Caen stone
in preference to the more expensive Portland, a
decision which provoked the inhabitants of Portland to address a petition to the committee 'praying that Stone from that Town might be employed
in the erection of the New Building in lieu of
Foreign Materials'. (ref. 50) Caen stone, the use of
which subsequently proved so disastrous at the
Carlton Club in Pall Mall, was nevertheless used (ref. 51)
and as early as 1866 a substantial sum had to be
spent on repairs to the external masonry. (ref. 52) The
foundations were laid in June 1843 (ref. 53) and the clubhouse appears to have been opened for members'
use early in 1845. (ref. 54) The design of the exterior
is said to have been the joint work of both architects. The interior decorations of the ground floor
are said to have been 'exclusively furnished from
Basevi's designs and the first floor from those of
Smirke', (ref. 55) but there is no evidence in the building:
itself of this supposed division of labour (Plates
108, 109, 110, 111, figs. 79–80).
The comments of contemporary journals on the
new building were, in general, favourable. (ref. 56)
The
Builder admired the exterior (ref. 57) and the kitchen
('far more spacious than that of the Reform Club')
was also commended. (ref. 58) The main point of interest was, however, the encaustic painting by
Messrs. Frederick Sang and Naundorff of the main
hall or saloon, and the staircase (Plates 109, 110a)
which, according to The Illustrated London News,
presented 'a most graceful composition of some of
the most exquisite beauties of nature, and the most
admired forms of classic art'. (ref. 58)
The Builder
reluctantly admitted that Sang had 'shewn considerable ability', but deplored the employment of
foreigners and stated that upon detailed examination Sang's work was found 'to consist of the most
common and hackneyed forms; and when you are
close to the work you see that the execution of it
would disgrace a tea-garden. It is, in fact, scenepainting; and there are several men engaged in
our theatres at this time who would do it better.'
The mosaic pavements were the work of Mr.
Blashfield. (ref. 57) In April 1845 Basevi and Smirke
were made honorary members of the club (ref. 59) and
their success was attested in the following month
by their election as joint architects for the extension of the Carlton club-house.
In 1857 Mr. Daines 'operated' on a portion of
the cornice in an attempt to preserve the external
stone (ref. 60) and in 1866 £3500 was spent on repairs to
the masonry, apparently carried out in Portland
stone. (ref. 52) According to S. C. Ramsey (writing in
The Architectural Review in 1914) Sang's work in
the lower part of the hall was discarded 'in favour
of plain white marble', but something very close to
the original designs appears to have been subsequently restored by Sang. (ref. 61) In 1910 two new
floors providing bedrooms were added; the architect was Maurice Webb. The addition is behind
the crowning balustrade and is virtually invisible
from the street. In 1923 the club purchased from
the Duke of Sutherland's trustees the Crown lease
of Stafford House stables, which stood immediately
behind the club-house, and in 1924–6 a large
annexe containing residential suites, bedrooms
and public rooms was constructed on this site, the
architect being Edwin J. Sadgrove. (ref. 62)
In 1941 members of the Bath Club were, as a
temporary measure, accommodated at the Conservative Club. In 1950 the two clubs merged
under the name of the Bath Club. In order to
provide more accommodation for members the
grand staircase was removed in 1951, the space
which it had occupied being divided by two newly
constructed floors. In 1959 the Bath Club removed to premises which it had previously occupied
in Brook Street. The future of the building,
which is now (April 1960) unoccupied, is uncertain.
Architectural description
The site having only two open frontages, east
and north, necessitated an irregular plan (figs.
79–80), its core being the large square central
saloon, with each side divided into three bays. The
middle bay of its east side contains the doorway
opening centrally in the long side of the morningroom, which overlooks St. James's Street and is a
large oblong room with a screen at its south end
opening to the smaller compartment in the south
pavilion. This last is balanced by the entrance hall
in the north pavilion, which is linked by a small
lobby off its south side to the central saloon. The
middle doorway in the north side of the saloon
originally opened to the great coffee-room of three
compartments. The three bays of the west side of
the saloon were left open, the side bays to lobbies
and the middle bay containing the first flight of
the grand staircase, which divided at the second
landing and returned in parallel flights to the
upper storey of the saloon. This storey opens to
the lower through a large circular well, and is lit
by a domed skylight. The ground-storey arrangement was repeated on the principal storey, with
the great drawing-room over the morning-room,
and the library over the coffee-room.
The stone front to St. James's Street consists
of two well-defined storeys and has a central
face of five equal bays flanked by slightly projecting pavilions, each of one wide bay (Plate 108).
The smooth masonry of the ground storey is
coursed with V-jointing and the five windows in
the central face have flat arches of V-jointed
voussoirs. Against each end pavilion stands a
porch formed by two widely spaced Doric
columns, the north porch serving the entrance and
the south framing a segmental bow window of
three lights. The ground storey is appropriately
finished with a Doric entablature, with brackets
replacing some of the triglyphs to support the farprojecting cornice which, surmounted by a balustrade, forms a balcony at first-floor level. The
lofty principal storey is adorned with a plainshafted Corinthian order—three-quarter columns
in the central face and conjoined groups of three
pilasters flanking each end pavilion. The windows in the middle five bays are richly dressed with
eared architraves, frieze tablets carved with festoons, and triangular pediments. In each end
pavilion is a three-light window dressed with
pilasters and columns of a plain-shafted Composite
order, with a pulvino-frieze and a triangular
pediment above the middle light. Further enrichment is provided in this storey by the band of
richly scrolled foliage ornament extending between the Corinthian capitals. The crowning
entablature, which breaks forward over the pilasters flanking each end pavilion, is surmounted by a
stone balustrade with pedestals above the columns
and pilasters. The basement area is screened by a
stone pedestal-parapet with inset panels of latticepatterned ironwork. Cast-iron flambeau-standards
rise from each stone die, and the entrance steps
are flanked by projecting pedestals supporting
heavy but well-designed lamp-standards of cast
iron.
The entrance hall is simply decorated, with its
walls coursed to represent stonework. A short
flight of steps rises to a landing at the back, behind
a screen of three bays, wide between narrow, of
fluted Roman Doric columns. In the back wall of
this landing is a round-arched shallow niche, and
on the left is the cross-vaulted lobby leading to the
central saloon (Plate 109b). Here, each side is
divided by wide pilasters into three round-arched
bays, groined into a deep cove that surrounds the
spandrels of the flat ceiling, pierced by the large
circular well opening to the upper storey. The
doors are framed by marble doorcases of architrave, plain frieze and triangular pediment, and
above the massive chimneypiece of black marble is
a tall mirror. The floor is of mosaic, and remarkably strong in colour; there is a deep skirting of
veined black marble, and the woodwork is of oak.
The piers and the vaulting are decorated with
painted arabesque ornament executed by Sang and
Naundorff. The work is competently carried out
and includes portraits of poets and painters in
roundels, but the manner in which it is disposed,
and more particularly the painted architectural
framing round it, does not enhance the design of
the saloon itself.
The long front morning-room (Plate 110b) is
finely but not elaborately decorated. The square,
pilastered compartment at the south end, lit by the
bow window in the south pavilion, is screened by
an Ionic colonnade formed of two pairs of columns,
the outer ones being square and attached to the
wall, and both being supported on a pedestal which
is a continuation of the dado running round the
room. The colonnade is repeated at the other end
of the room against the wall. The central doorway
has smaller, attached Ionic columns, again on
pedestals, supporting an entablature with a
blocking-course above. At either end of the room
there is a plain chimneypiece of black marble with
a tall gilt mirror above it, topped by an eagle. The
walls are divided into wide and narrow panels, the
entablature has a modillion cornice, and the ceiling
is decorated with rectangular and circular panels
enclosed by heavy enriched mouldings, somewhat
in the English late seventeenth-century manner.
The columns and pilasters are of Siena-marbled
scagliola except those to the doorway which
imitate pink granite: the bases are painted bronze
and the caps are gilt. All the woodwork is of oak
and so was the furniture, a great deal of which was
contemporary with the building and of considerable distinction. It was designed by Henry
Whitaker, one of the small chairs and the long
tables supported by pairs of griffins being illustrated in plates 1 and 65 respectively of his book
The Practical Cabinet Maker and Upholsterer's
Treasury of Designs, House-Furnishing and Decorating Assistant, 1847. (ref. 63)
Figure 79:
No. 74 St. James's Street (formerly Conservative Club), ground-floor plan
Figure 80:
No. 74 St. James's Street (formerly Conservative Club), first-floor plan
The dining-room is divided into three equal
parts by Roman Doric colonnades, disposed in a
similar manner to those in the front room. The
finishings also are generally similar, though the
scagliola columns are of a pinkish-brown colour
and the chimneypieces are of a gold-veined black
marble. The three hanging light fittings, of
bronze and glass, are almost certainly original.
The main staircase (removed in 1951, Plate
110a) had treads and risers of white marble with a
massive balustrade of multi-coloured scagliola, the
pedestals on the half-landing carrying carved
marble lamp supports of Corinthianesque design.
In each side wall were three round-arched niches,
each containing a plaster cast from an antique
female statue, with roundels in the lunettes above
them. The fiat ceiling was surrounded by groined
vaulting similar to that in the hall below and was
similarly decorated.
The upper storey of the saloon (Plate 109a) continues the style of the lower storey, and has arcaded
walls, a full entablature with huge brackets
coming down into the spandrels of the arcaded
walls, and a ribbed and groined cove rising to the
flat spandrels surrounding the glazed dome. The
painted arabesque decoration is here confined to
the upper part of the walls and the groined cove,
the panelled piers of the arcades being of coloured
scagliola, as is the massive balustrade surrounding
the circular well. All the principal doors are of
mahogany, generally framed in simple architraves,
and in the central arches of the north and south
sides are large mirrors. The four dies of the
circular balustrade formerly supported ornamental
lamp-standards, and in the segmental balcony
overlooking the staircase stood a life-sized statue of
the Earl of Beaconsfield, signed by Count Gleichen and dated 1883. A bust of Queen Victoria,
formerly on the half-landing, is by Onslow Ford
and is dated 1898.
The front drawing-room (Plate 111a) on the
first floor is remarkably fine. At each end is a
screen of Corinthian columns and pilasters without pedestals, supporting an entablature with a
frieze modelled with a repeating pattern of roses,
thistles and shamrocks. Above it a cove rises to
the flat ceiling which is surrounded by a moulded
beam and decorated with painted ornament of a
'Pompeian' character, as competently carried out
as the work in the saloon. The woodwork appears
to be maple, the flat surfaces being of the 'bird'seye' variety, and the brackets and other carvings
on the pedimented doorcases are of oak. The very
simple chimneypieces are of Siena and white
marble, and the columns and pilasters are of
scagliola imitating Siena. Some of the furniture
must again be by Henry Whitaker and the tables
are decorated with a pattern executed in marquetry, taken from the main frieze to the room.
It is not certain whether there is any connexion
between this formalized naturalistic decoration
and Whitaker's publication of 1849 entitled
Materials for a New Style of Ornamentation consisting of Botanical Subjects and Compositions drawn
from Nature.
The library (Plate 111b) is divided in the same
manner as the dining-room below it, this time by
square, panelled Corinthian columns on pedestals.
The doors are of mahogany but the bookcases and
other woodwork are of oak, and even the heavily
beamed ceiling is grained in imitation. The
columns and their pedestals are of multi-coloured
scagliola with gilt mouldings. The chimneypieces
are of a yellowish-green marble with mirrors
above them in pedimented wooden frames.
Nos. 85–86 St. James's Street: the Union Club
Previous history of the site is described on pages 466,
468–9. The existing building was formerly occupied by the
Thatched House Club
In December 1861 J. Haynes, solicitor, of
Palace Chambers, St. James's Street, the lessee of
Nos. 85 (then occupied by the Thatched House
Tavern) and 86 St. James's Street, requested the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests to grant him
a long lease in order that he might pull down the
existing houses and erect 'a new Building for a
Club House and for Chambers'. His application
was granted, and the demolition of Nos. 85 and 86
began in February 1862. Haynes was apparently
acting on behalf of William Woodgate of Princes
Street, Hyde Park, to whom the lease was later
granted. The site of No. 3 Russell Court was included in that of the new building, which thus
gained additional street frontage on the south and
west, the frontage to St. James's Street being
relatively narrow. The architect of the new
building (Plate 272c) was James Knowles,
junior. (ref. 64)
From 1866 to 1869 the building was occupied
by the Civil Service Club, with residential apartments known as the Civil Service (or Thatched
House) Chambers on the upper floors. In 1870
the Thatched House Club became the occupiers,
and the chambers were thereafter known as the
Thatched House Chambers. (ref. 65) The aim of the
Thatched House Club, which was established in
1865, was 'to facilitate the association of gentlemen wishing to enjoy the advantages of a Club
without political bias', (ref. 66) and it may have incorporated the Civil Service Club. It continued to
occupy Nos. 85–86 St. James's Street until 1949;
it removed shortly afterwards to the Junior Carlton
Club in Pall Mall. In the following year the club
disposed of the building to the Union Club, whose
club-house at No. 10 Carlton House Terrace
(where it had been accommodated since 1925) was
required by the Government for other purposes.
After the building had been renovated the Union
Club moved in in November 1951, and still remains there. (ref. 67)
The architect, James Knowles, junior, designed
a tall building with four storeys above a basement,
and a garret in the roof. The front to St. James's
Street is of stone, probably Bath, and the style is
'Grosvenor Hotel' Italianate. Pedestals and entablatures define the storeys, and all the windows have
round-arched openings except those in the third
storey. There are four openings evenly spaced in
the first and fourth storeys, and five in the second
and third, the middle three contained in a canted
bay corbelled out from a column attached to the
central pier of the first storey. Four segmentalpedimented dormers break the panelled parapet
above the crowning entablature, and tall rusticbanded chimney-stacks flank the steeply pitched
roof. Coarse foliage ornament, carved by J.
Daymond, fills the spandrel-headed panels on
the first-storey piers, the spandrel panels in the
second and fourth storeys, and the dormer pediments.
The plan is undistinguished: a narrow entrance
hall leads to a central staircase rising only to the
first floor and lit from the south. There is a front
room, a small room behind it, a large dining-room
at the rear, facing south, and another, smaller rear
room. This arrangement is repeated on the first
floor, with a single large room in front. A considerable part of the interior was redecorated early
in this century and what remains of the original
work is commonplace in character. The staircase
is the most successful feature, being of stone, with
an open well, and an iron balustrade in the English
mid eighteenth-century manner: the walls at firstfloor level are arcaded.
In the dining-room there is a fine chimneypiece
of white marble dating from the early nineteenth
century, which was brought from the Union
Club's premises at Carlton House Terrace. It is
not known if it had originally come from the
club's previous building in Trafalgar Square. It is
in the Grecian taste, with a pair of draped female
figures supporting a frieze carved with rosettes
and scroll decoration emanating from the tails of
sphinxes, and has a central tablet bearing a female
mask.
Nos. 87–88 St. James's Street
Previous history of this site is described on pages 469–71
In 1901 the Commissioners of Woods and
Forests began to negotiate with their lessees at
Nos. 87–89 St. James's Street for the rebuilding
of the property. The lessees' architect then was
William Woodward. During the course of the
negotiations the option on the new building lease
was taken over by the Alliance Assurance Co.
Ltd., together with a previously arranged commitment to re-house the Post Office which had
formerly occupied No. 89 St. James's Street.
The company widened the scope of the original
rebuilding plans, and retained Richard Norman
Shaw and Ernest Newton as their architects. Because of the proximity of St. James's Palace, the
plans were submitted to King Edward VII. The
height of the new building (Plate 272c) was restricted to 51 feet, and the southern boundary of
the site set back in order to widen Cleveland Row. (ref. 68)
Building work appears to have begun in 1904
and been completed at the end of 1905. The
builders were Messrs. Trollope and Sons and Colls
and Sons. The ground floor was divided between
the Post Office and a suite of offices for the company, while the upper floors were designed as
bachelor flats with their attendant service quarters.
A drawing showing the main elevations to St.
James's Street and Cleveland Row was exhibited
at the Royal Academy in 1906. (ref. 69)
Although it lacks the exuberant splendour of
the Piccadilly Hotel, and the powerfulness of the
ever-lamented Gaiety Theatre, the Alliance
building is, on the whole, the most perfectly coordinated and finely handled of Norman Shaw's
late 'Baroque' designs, and the simple lines of its
composition stand in striking contrast to the complexity of his earlier 'Flemish Renaissance' building opposite.
The exterior is entirely faced with Portland
stone, and the three fronts are perfectly related by
their sharing the salient stringcourses and crowning entablature. The principal front to St.
James's Street is composed of three stages, defined
by moulded stringcourses. The first stage is a lofty
rusticated arcade of three wide bays. The second
stage is less high and contains five richly dressed
windows evenly spaced in a plain ashlar face
bounded by long-and-short quoins. The third
stage is a low attic, also with five windows,
finished with a full entablature which is, however,
omitted above the middle three windows where
the front rises for another storey, containing three
windows, and is crowned with an open-bedmould
triangular pediment. The slated roof sweeps
down to a concealed gutter and is broken on each
side of the pedimented feature by a four-light dormer. Shaw's detailing is masterly. The rustic
arcade is built up in channel-jointed courses, flat
and pulvinated alternately, the piers rising from
moulded bases and the voussoired arches springing
from a moulded impost. The middle arch contains the entrance, flanked by widely spaced Doric
columns with blocked shafts, supporting a simple
entablature, and the two side arches frame large
windows lighting the ground storey and the
mezzanine. The stringcourse below the second
stage is broken by the segmental-fronted stone
balconies of the five windows, each furnished with
an ornamental iron railing of bombé profile. Each
window is divided by a mullion and transom, and
dressed with a moulded architrave and a segmental
pediment resting on consoles. The moulded
stringcourse below the attic storey is broken
forward beneath each window to form a sill resting on plain blocks. These windows have plain
jambs and the openings break the architrave of
the crowning entablature, its frieze forming the
flat-arched window heads, each slightly accented
with a raised keystone. Each side window of the
three in the secondary attic is quite plain, but the
middle one is dressed with a moulded architrave,
eared and having a segmental head broken by plain
voussoirs and a corniced keystone, while the
circular light in the pediment tympanum is framed
in an even more Baroque fashion with a blocked
archivolt rising from profile consoles above a
moulded sill.
The front towards Russell Court repeats the
design of the main front, with the all-important
omission of the pedimented secondary attic, but
the long front to Cleveland Row is simple in
character, no doubt in deference to St. James's
Palace opposite. The composition consists of a
central face having five evenly spaced windows in
each of its four storeys, set slightly recessed between the rusticated returns of the east and west
fronts, these return faces having one window in
each storey above the windowless ground storey.
The rusticated lower stage of the central face is
clearly articulated as two storeys, divided by a
stringcourse continuing the impost of the east and
west arcades, and the windows of the second stage
are without pediments.