Reform Club

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This article is about the English club. For the organization in Hong Kong, see Reform Club of Hong Kong.
The Reform Club
London Reform Club.jpg
The Reform Club in London viewed from Pall Mall, with the Travellers Club adjacent.
General information
Architectural style Italian Renaissance
Address 104 Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5EW
Coordinates 51°30′24″N 0°08′01″W / 51.506785°N 0.133625°W / 51.506785; -0.133625
Groundbreaking 1837
Completed 1841
Design and construction
Architect Charles Barry
Civil engineer Samuel Morton Peto, Thomas Grissell
Main contractor Grissell & Peto
Website
www.reformclub.com

The Reform Club is a gentlemen's club on the south side of Pall Mall, in central London. Originally for men only, it changed to include the admission of women in 1981. The club enjoys extensive reciprocity with clubs around the world, and attracts significant numbers of foreign members, including diplomats.

Contents

[edit] History

This 1840s drawing shows the corridors around the central saloon at first floor level

The club was founded in 1836 by Edward Ellice, 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. The new club, for members of both Houses of Parliament, was intended to be a centre for the radical ideas which that Bill represented: a bastion of liberal and progressive thought that became closely associated with the Liberal Party, which largely succeeded the Whigs in the later 19th century.

Brooks's Club, the headquarters of the old Whig aristocracy, was neither able nor prepared to open its doors to a flood of new men, so preliminary meetings were held at Ellice's house to plan a much larger club, which would promote 'the social intercourse of the reformers of the United Kingdom'. When a Liberal Member of Parliament 'crossed the floor' to join or work with another party, it was expected he should resign from the club. The Club no longer represents any particular political view, being a purely social venue.

Until the decline of the Liberal Party in the early 20th century, it was de rigueur for Liberal MPs and Peers to be members of the Reform Club, being regarded as an unofficial party headquarters. However, the National Liberal Club, formed under William Ewart Gladstone's chairmanship, was established in 1882, designed to be more "inclusive", and was geared more towards Liberal grandees and activists throughout the country.

The Reform Club's building was designed by renowned architect Sir Charles Barry[1] and contracted to builders Grissell & Peto. Construction begin in 1837 and finished in 1841. This new club was palatial, the design being based on the Farnese Palace in Rome, and its saloon is regarded as the finest room of all London clubs. The Reform was among the first senior London clubs to have bedrooms (known as chambers), and its library contains over 75,000 books, mostly of a political, historical and biographical nature; traditionally, members donate a copy of any book they write to the club's library, ever increasing its stock.

After World War II and with the Liberal Party's decline, the club increasingly drew its membership from civil servants[2] in particular those from the Treasury, whereas the neighbouring Travellers Club became synonymous with Foreign Office officials.

The club maintains a comprehensive list of guest speakers and musical ensembles throughout the year—for example, Nick Clegg and Theresa May in 2011, and Archbishop John Sentamu in 2012.

[edit] Appearances in popular culture and literature

The Reform Club features in Anthony Trollope's novel Phineas Finn (1867). This eponymous main character becomes a member of the club and there acquaints Liberal members of the House of Commons, who arrange to get him elected to an Irish parliamentary borough. The book is one of the political novels in the Palliser series, and the political events it describes are a fictionalized account of the build-up to the Second Reform Act (passed in 1867) which effectively extended the franchise to the working classes.

The club is used fictionally in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days; the protagonist, Phileas Fogg, is a member of the Reform Club who sets out to circumnavigate the world on a bet from his fellow members, beginning and ending at the club.

Michael Palin, following his fictional predecessor, also began and ended his televised journey around the world in 80 days at the Reform Club. The Club, like other senior London clubs, has a dress code requiring gentlemen to wear a jacket and tie; Palin preferred to remain casually dressed and, not having prepared himself properly, he was not permitted to enter the building to complete his journey as had been his intention, so his trip ended on the steps outside.

Victorian publisher Norman Warne is shown visiting the Reform Club in the 2006 film Miss Potter.

The club has been used as a location in a number of films, including the fencing scene in the 2002 James Bond movie Die Another Day.,[3] "The Quiller Memorandum" (1966), "The Man Who Haunted Himself" (1970), Lindsay Anderson's "O Lucky Man!" (1973), "Nicholas Nickleby" (2003), "Quantum of Solace" (2008) and "Sherlock Holmes" (2009).

[edit] Notable members

[edit] Further reading

  • Lejeune, Anthony, with Malcolm Lewis, The Gentlemen's Clubs of London, Bracken Books, London, 1979 (reprinted 1984 and 1987), ISBN 0-946495-14-9
  • Burlingham, Russell & Billis, Roger (eds), Reformed Characters. The Reform Club in History and Literature. An Anthology with Commentary (London, 2005)
  • Woodbridge, George, The Reform Club 1836–1978. A History from the Club's Records (London, 1978)

[edit] See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Reform Club

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Pall Mall; Clubland Old and New London: Volume 4 (pp. 140-164)". british-history.ac.uk. 2003-06-22. Retrieved 18 April 2013. 
  2. ^ Walker, Tim (18 October 2011). "Polly Toynbee's man makes a meal of his expenses". Telegraph. Retrieved 18 April 2013. 
  3. ^ http://www.mi6.co.uk/sections/articles/opinion_spectre_4.php3?s=articles&t=

[edit] External links

Gentlemen's clubs historically aligned with Whigs and/or Liberals
Current
  • Brooks's 1764–present (No longer politically aligned)
  • Reform Club 1836–present (No longer politically aligned)
  • National Liberal Club 1882–present
Former
Electoral reform in the United Kingdom
Reform Acts
Parliamentary
Municipal
Representation of
the People Acts
Other related Acts
Related topics

Coordinates: 51°30′24″N 0°08′00″W / 51.50667°N 0.13333°W / 51.50667; -0.13333

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