Athenaeum Club

The Athenaeum Club is a gentlemen's club standing at 107 Pall Mall, London, at the corner of Waterloo Place.

Related Topics:
Gentlemen's club - Pall Mall - London - Waterloo Place

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It is noted for its large library and the bas-relief frieze decorating the club house exterior. It was long regarded as a clergymen's club; it once boasted Bishops, Cabinet Members, and Lords amongst its members.

Related Topics:
Bishops - Cabinet Members - Lords

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The club's facilities include a dining room, a smoking room, a Billiards room and a suite of bedrooms.

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John Wilson Croker, Sir Thomas Lawrence, and some friends founded the club in 1823 for individuals known for scientific, literary or artistic accomplishments as well as patrons of these endeavors. Sir Thomas Lawrence designed the club crest: a head of Athena inside an oval surrounded by the legend "ATHENÆUM CLUB·PALL MALL".

Related Topics:
John Wilson Croker - Thomas Lawrence - 1823 - Athena

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The club house was designed in Neoclassical taste by Decimus Burton. The main entrance and the front of the house on Waterloo Place has a Doric portico with paired columns. There is a continuous balustrade on the piano nobile, the main floor above the ground floor, with a frieze copied from the Parthenon above. A statue of Pallas Athene by Edward Hodges Baily stands above the porch. The original design was for two storeys; the third was added later.

Related Topics:
Neoclassical - Decimus Burton - Waterloo Place - Doric - Portico - Piano nobile - Parthenon - Pallas Athene - Edward Hodges Baily

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For many years The Athenaeum Club was widely seen to represent the peak of London's clubland for the public intellectual. Most members of the Athenaeum were men of inherited wealth and status, but, under Rule II, the club additionally admitted men "...of distinguished eminence in Science, Literature, or the Arts, or for Public Service" The admission of men who had gained their social position through intellectual influence and achievement rather than by title or money gave the club an unusual diversity of membership.

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In 2002 the members voted to admit women.

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