reform club pall mall london 1872 gentlemen's club men only Edward Ellice
Reform Club is a gentlemen's club on the south side of Pall Mall (at number 104), in central London. Originally for men only, it has admitted women since 1981. In 1977 its subscription fees were among the highest in London. It was founded in 1836 by Edward Ellice, Whig whip, whose riches came from the bank 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 meant 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 had largely succeeded the Whigs by the middle of the 19th century. Brooks's Club, the headquarters of the old Whig aristocracy, was not prepared to open its doors to a flood of new men, so preliminary meetings were held in 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, he was expected to resign from the club. The Club no longer requires any particular political view of its members, and is purely social. Until the decline of the Liberal Party, it was de rigueur for Liberal MPs to be members of the Reform Club, which almost constituted another party headquarters, although the National Liberal Club, formed under William Gladstone's chairmanship, was established in 1882, designed to be more "inclusive", and was geared more towards Liberal grandees and activists in the country. The building, like its neighbour the Travellers Club, (number 106), was designed by Sir Charles Barry and opened in 1841. The new club was palatial, the design being based on the Farnese Palace in Rome. The Reform was one of the first clubs to have bedrooms, and its library contains some 75,000 books, mostly political history and biography.
Size: 4933px × 3806px
Photo credit: © 19th era / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: -fashioned, 1800, 1836, 1872, 1977, 1981., 19th, 2d, academic, admitted, age, ancient, antique, antiquity, black, book, bw, bygone, central, century, classical, club, copy, cut, cutout, drawing, duplicate, edward, ellice, embossed, empire, engrave, engraved, engraver, engraving, etching, expression, fees, figure, formal, founded, front, frontispiece, gentlemen, graphic, hand, heritage, highest, historic, history, illustration, image, imperial, late, lifelike, london, london., majesty, mall, margin, master, men, monotone, national, nineteenth, notable, obscure, obsolete, olden, original, originally, pall, paper, period, pictorial, picture, portrait, pre, press, print, printed, printing, prior, proof, publication, publicity, queen, rare, real, realism, realistic, reference, reform, relief, replica, represent, representation, repro, reproduce, reproduction, retro, review, riches, romantic, side, social, south, standard, steel, studio, style, subject, subscription, teach, time, title, tool, topic, topical, tract, true, unusual, victoria, victorian, visual, whig, whip, white, women
