Club Life of London, Vol. 1 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th CenturiesTimbs, John
History
Club Life of London, Vol. 1 (of 2): With Anecdotes of the Clubs, Coffee-Houses and Taverns of the Metropolis During the 17th, 18th, and 19th Centuries
Timbs, John
Clubs -- England -- London; Literary landmarks -- England -- London; London (England) -- Social life and customs
The Army and Navy Club-house, Pall Mall, corner of George-street,
designed by Parnell and Smith, was opened February 1851. The exterior
is a combination from Sansovino's Palazzo Cornaro, and Library of St.
Mark at Venice; but varying in the upper part, which has Corinthian
columns, with windows resembling arcades filling up the intercolumns;
and over their arched headings are groups of naval and military
symbols, weapons, and defensive armour--very picturesque. The frieze
has also effective groups symbolic of the Army and Navy; the cornice,
likewise very bold, is crowned by a massive balustrade. The basement,
from the Cornaro, is rusticated; the entrance being in the centre of
the east or George-street front, by three open arches, similar in
character to those in the Strand front of Somerset House. The whole is
extremely rich in ornamental detail. The hall is fine; the coffee-room
is panelled with scagliola, and has a ceiling enriched with flowers,
and pierced for ventilation by heated flues above; adjoining is a room
lighted by a glazed plafond; next is the house dining-room, decorated
in the Munich style; and more superb is the morning-room, with its
arched windows, and mirrors forming arcades and vistas innumerable. A
magnificent stone staircase leads to the library and reading rooms;
and in the third story are billiard and card rooms; and a
smoking-room, with a lofty dome elaborately decorated in traceried
Moresque. The apartments are adorned with an equestrian portrait of
Queen Victoria, painted by Grant, R.A.; a piece of Gobelin tapestry
(Sacrifice to Diana), presented to the Club in 1849 by Prince Louis
Napoleon; marble busts of William IV. and the Dukes of Kent and
Cambridge; and several life-size portraits of naval and military
heroes. The Club-house is provided with twenty lines of Whishaw's
Telekouphona, or Speaking Telegraph, which communicate from the
Secretary's room to the various apartments. The cost of this superb
edifice, exclusive of fittings, was 35,000_l._; the plot of ground on
which it stands cost the Club 52,000_l._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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