Reform Club
Reform Club | |
---|---|
Morton Peto | |
Main contractor | Grissell & Peto |
Website | |
www |
The Reform Club is a private members' club, owned and controlled by its members, on the south side of Pall Mall in central London, England. As with all of London's original gentlemen's clubs, it had an all-male membership for decades, but it was one of the first all-male clubs to change its rules to include the admission of women on equal terms in 1981. Since its foundation in 1836, the Reform Club has been the traditional home for those committed to progressive political ideas, with its membership initially consisting of Radicals and Whigs. However, it is no longer associated with any particular political party, and it now serves a purely social function.
The Reform Club currently enjoys extensive reciprocity with similar clubs around the world. It attracts a significant number of foreign members, such as diplomats accredited to the Court of St James's. Of the current membership of around 2,700, some 500 are "overseas members", and over 400 are women.[1]
History
19th century
The club was founded by Edward Ellice, Member of Parliament (MP) for Coventry and Whig Whip, whose riches came from the Hudson's Bay Company but whose zeal was chiefly devoted to securing the passage of the Reform Act 1832; it held its first meeting at No. 104 Pall Mall on 5 May 1836.[2]
This new club, for members of both Houses of
The Reform Club's building was designed by renowned architect
20th century
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/ed/Reform_Club._Upper_level_of_the_saloon._From_London_Interiors_%281841%29.jpg/300px-Reform_Club._Upper_level_of_the_saloon._From_London_Interiors_%281841%29.jpg)
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0b/ReformClubLobby.jpg/300px-ReformClubLobby.jpg)
After the
Literary associations
Besides having had many distinguished members from the literary world, including William Makepeace Thackeray and Arnold Bennett, the Reform played a role in some significant events, such as the feud between Oscar Wilde's friend and literary executor Robbie Ross and Wilde's ex-lover Lord Alfred Douglas. In 1913, after discovering that Lord Alfred had taken lodgings in the same house as himself with a view to stealing his papers, Ross sought refuge at the club, from where he wrote to Edmund Gosse, saying that he felt obliged to return to his rooms "with firearms".[9]
Harold Owen, the brother of Wilfred Owen, called on Siegfried Sassoon at the Reform after Wilfred's death,[10] and Sassoon himself wrote a poem entitled "Lines Written at the Reform Club", which was printed for members at Christmas 1920.[11]
Appearances in popular culture and literature
Books
The Reform Club appears in
The club also appears in
The Reform Club was used as a meeting place for
The Reform Club and its Victorian era celebrity chef
Films and television
Comedian and travel writer Michael Palin began and ended his televised 1989 journey around the world in 80 days at the Reform Club, following his fictional predecessor. Palin was not permitted to enter the building to complete his journey, as had been his intention, so his trip ended on the steps outside. Palin later explained that he had been refused entry because he was not wearing a tie.[16]
Victorian publisher Norman Warne is depicted visiting the Reform Club in the 2006 film Miss Potter.[17] The club has been used as a location in a number of other films, including the fencing scene in the 2002 James Bond movie Die Another Day, The Quiller Memorandum (1966), The Man Who Haunted Himself (1970), Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man! (1973), The Avengers (1998), Nicholas Nickleby (2002), 1408 (2007), Quantum of Solace (2008), Sherlock Holmes (2009), Paddington (2014), and Christopher Nolan's Tenet (2020).[18]
The club was also used in Chris Van Dusen's television series Bridgerton as a filming location.[19]
Photoshoot
The Reform Club was the location of a photo shoot featuring Paula Yates for the 1979 summer issue of Penthouse.[20]
Podcasts
In The Magnus Archives, the Reform Club was the possible location of Jurgen Leitner's library, and had secret underground tunnels.[21]
Notable members
- John Hamilton-Gordon, 1st Marquess of Aberdeen and Temair
- Donald Adamson
- H. H. Asquith
- Sir David Attenborough
- William Lygon, 7th Earl Beauchamp
- Hilaire Belloc
- Arnold Bennett
- William Beveridge
- Stewart Binns
- Rt Hon Charles Booth
- Dame Margaret Booth
- Baroness Boothroyd
- Mihir Bose
- John Bright
- Henry Brougham
- MP
- Guy Burgess
- Donald Cameron of Lochiel
- Sir Menzies Campbell
- Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman
- Samuel Carter
- Joseph Chamberlain
- Andrew Carnegie
- Henri Cartier-Bresson
- Sir John Cassels
- Sir Baron de Forest
- Richard Cobden
- Albert Cohen
- Professor Martin Daunton
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- Queen Camilla
- Baroness Dean of Thornton-le-Fylde
- Sir Charles Dilke
- John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham
- Edward Ellice
- Lord Falconer
- Garret FitzGerald
- Edward Morgan Forster
- William Ewart Gladstone
- Baroness Greengross
- Sir William Harcourt
- Lord Hattersley
- Friedrich Hayek
- Nick Hewer
- Barbara Hosking
- Sir Michael Howard
- Sir Bernard Ingham
- Sir Henry Irving
- Henry James
- Sir John Jardine
- Lord Jenkins of Hillhead
- William, Earl Jowitt
- Alan Lascelles
- Ruth Lea
- Roger Liddle
- David Lloyd George, who resigned with Churchill over Baron de Forest's blackballing
- Professor Sir Ravinder Maini
- Dame Mary Marsh
- Professor Javier_Martín-Torres
- José Guilherme Merquior
- James Moir
- James Montgomrey, a founding member
- Lord Morgan
- Sir Derek Morris
- Baroness Nicholson
- Lord Noel-Buxton
- Daniel O'Connell
- Barry Edward O'Meara
- David Omand
- Viscount Palmerston
- Dame Stella Rimington
- Bertram Fletcher Robinson
- Sir John Richard Robinson
- Oliver Robinson, 2nd Marquess of Ripon
- Curtis Roosevelt
- Brian Roper
- Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery
- Viscount Runciman
- Lord John Russell
- Siegfried Sassoon
- Paul Scofield
- Viscount Simon
- George Smith
- Sir Martin Sorrell
- Very Rev Victor Stock
- Sir Edward Sullivan
- Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex
- Professor Alan M. Taylor
- Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
- William Makepeace Thackeray
- Caroline Thomson
- William Thomson, 1st Baron Kelvin
- Jeremy Thorpe
- Sir David Walker
- Chaim Weizmann
- H. G. Wells
- Richard Grosvenor, 2nd Marquess of Westminster
- Dame Jo Williams
- MP
See also
- List of London's gentlemen's clubs
References
- ^ Twells, Bob. "Reform Club". www.reformclub.com. Archived from the original on 9 May 2017. Retrieved 30 March 2017.
- ^ Fagan, Louis (1887). The Reform club: its founders and architect. Bernard Quaritch. p. 34.
- ^ Fagan 1887, p. 36. 1887.
- ^ "Pall Mall; Clubland Old and New London: Volume 4 (pp. 140–164)". british-history.ac.uk. 22 June 2003. Archived from the original on 9 February 2013. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
- ^ "175 Years of the Reform Clubhouse 1841-2016". The Reform Club. p. 5. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "Information" (PDF). The Reform Club. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 October 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ Walker, Tim (18 October 2011). "Polly Toynbee's man makes a meal of his expenses". Telegraph. Archived from the original on 12 January 2022. Retrieved 18 April 2013.
- ^ "Talking about "Reform" at the Reform Club: H.E. Ambassador Liu Xiaoming Delivers A Speech at the British Reform Club". 25 November 2013. Archived from the original on 15 February 2023. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ Maureen Borland, Wilde's Devoted Friend: a Life of Robert Ross (1990), p. 201.
- ^ Christian Major, "Sassoon's London: the Reform Club", Siegfried's Journal, no 12 (July 2007), pp. 5–13.
- ^ Russell Burlingham & Roger Billis, Reformed Characters: The Reform Club in History and Literature (2005), p. 34.
- ^ Trollope, Anthony (1867). "Chapter 25: Mr. Turnbull's Carriage Stops the Way". St. Paul's. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "Around the World in Eighty Days". Britannica. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "The Human Factor by Graham Greene". Greg Goode. Archived from the original on 27 June 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "The Devil's Feast by M. J. Carter". Crime Review. Archived from the original on 23 October 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "Vanity Fair's Michael Palin: 'Today Becky Sharp would be on Love Island – or working as President Trump's press secretary'". Radio Times. 2 September 2018. Archived from the original on 26 April 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "Miss Potter Film Locations". Almost Ginger. 22 March 2021. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "Tenet at the Reform Club". Screen IT. Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ "The glamorous country houses and bucolic gardens that bring Regency London to life in Bridgerton". Tatler. 28 February 2022. Archived from the original on 21 December 2020. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
- ^ The Milwaukee Journal – 23 July 1979.
- ^ Old Passages Archived 26 January 2023 at the Wayback Machine The Magnus Archives (Podcast). Rusty Quill. 8 September 2016. Retrieved 26 January 2023.
Further reading
- The Reform Club Library: A Retrospect, 1841-1991 (London: Reform Club, 1991).
- Burlingham, Russell; Billis, Roger (2005). Reformed Characters. The Reform Club in History and Literature. An Anthology with Commentary. London: Reform Club.
- J. Mordaunt Crook, The Reform Club (London: Reform Club, 1973)
- Escott, T. H. S. (1914). Club Makers and Club Members. London: T. Fisher Unwin.
- Fagan, Louis (1887). The Reform Club 1836–1886: Its Founders and its Architect. London: Reform Club.
- ISBN 0-8317-3800-6.
- ISBN 978-1-906768-20-1.
- Mordaunt Crook, J. (1973). The Reform Club. London: Reform Club.
- Sharpe, Michael (1996). The Political Committee of the Reform Club. London: Reform Club. ISBN 0-9503053-2-4.
- Thévoz, Seth Alexander (2018). Club Government: How the Early Victorian World was Ruled from London Clubs. London: I.B. Tauris/Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-78453-818-7.
- Thévoz, Seth Alexander (2022). Behind Closed Doors: The Secret Life of London Private Members' Clubs. London: Robinson/Little, Brown. ISBN 978-1-47214-646-5.
- Urbach, Peter (1999). The Reform Club: Some Twentieth Century Members – A Photographic Collection. London: Reform Club.
- Van Leeuwen, Thomas A P (2020) [2017]. The Magic Stove: Barry, Soyer and The Reform Club or How a Great Chef Helped to Create a Great Building. Amsterdam/Paris: Les Editions du Malentendu/ Jap Sam Books. ISBN 978-90-826690-0-8.
- Woodbridge, George (1978). The Reform Club 1836–1978: A History from the Club's Records. London: Clearwater. ISBN 0-9503053-1-6.
External links
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/4/4a/Commons-logo.svg/30px-Commons-logo.svg.png)
- Reform Club website
- Survey of London's entry on the Club
- "The Reform Club: Architecture and the Birth of Popular Government", lecture by Peter Marsh and Paul Vonberg at Gresham College, 25 September 2007 (available for MP3 and MP4 download)
- Reform Club library pamphlets
- Mary Evans Picture Library – The Club's collection of caricatures
- CBC.CA Paul Kennedy's audio tour of the Club, broadcast in February 2011