The Whitehall Club

The Whitehall Club. Architect: C. O. Parnell, of Pall-mall (who also designed the Army and Navy Club). 1866. Photograph [Click on the image to produce a larger picture.]

Text accompanying illustration

An elegant stone building, which is now approaching completion, in Parliament-street, Westminster, at the corner of Derby-street, Cannon-row, has been erected for the accommodation of the Whitehall Club. This new association has no political character, but is chiefly composed of the leading engineers, contractors, and other men of business having frequent occasion to resort to the neighbourhood of the Houses of Parliament and of the Government offices in Whitehall. The trustees are Sir Morton Peto, Mr. J. A. Hallett, and Mr. John Fowler; besides whom the list of the committee includes Mr. Brassey, Mr. G. F. Holroyd, Mr. C. Waring, and seven or eight other gentlemen. The number of members is limited to 800, the power of election being vested in the committee. The building, of which we give an Illustration, was designed by the late Mr. C. O. Parnell, of Pall-mall, the architect of the Army and Navy Club, and has been finished under the superintendence of Mr. C. J. Parnell, his son; the builders are Messrs. Lucas, and the estimated cost, without the site, was £25,000. The style of architecture is florid Italian; the front, in Parliament-street, is decorated with a row of Ionic pillars in the lower compartment, and a row of Corinthian in the upper, which is surmounted by a highly-ornamental cornice, with small oval windows in the frieze, and a high and steep slated roof above. The sculptures of the principal doorway in the Derby-street front are from the architect’s own designs, representing two boys with baskets of flowers, and with a rich profusion of other devices; all this work has been executed by Mr. Tolmie. The interior of the building, which is yet far from being ready for use, comprises a spacious morning-room, 40 ft. long, in front, and a coffee-room of the same dimensions behind, on the ground floor; a large smoking-room on the first floor, looking out on Parliament-street, a library and billiard-room, with kitchens and other offices in the basement, and bed-room attics for the servants of the clnb. On the whole, the new Whitehall Club will be not only an ornament to that part of the town, but an example of convenient arrangement for the purposes of social meeting and recreation for which it is required by that class of hard-working men of business to whom it belongs.

Bibliography

“The Whitehall Club.” Illustrated London News. 48 (13 January 1866): 52. Hathi Trust Digital Library version of a copy in the University of Michigan Library. Web. 23 December 2015.


Last modified 8 October 2012