1840.] 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



14/ 



THE REFORM CLUB-HOUSE, PALL MALL. 



CHARLES BARRY, R.A., ARCHITECT. 



What Ciinbe said about club-houses? Their friends are silenced by 

 llieir success, and their enemies cannot contend against them. Hercules 

 might have given up his club, but the aristocracy are determined not 

 to follow his example. Their merits and demerits are beyond our 

 control, — one only fact we have to deal with, and that is their rapid 

 increase. The palaces have disappeared or have been eclipsed, and 

 the south of Fall Mall is covered with an almost uninterrupted line of 

 temples in honour of the social principle. If the grandeur of our 

 commercial edifices strikes the foreigner with wonder, or if he considers 

 our parks and squares as worthy rivals of his alleys of orange trees, how 

 can he fail to pass without notice these personifications of national 

 characteristics. The foreigner may justly marvel to see the palace 

 eclipsed before the shrine of Mammon, but he must be still more asto- 

 nished to see the hospital front of St. James's shrinking back from the 

 grandeur of its unroyal neighbours. The principle of association is the 

 foundation of civilization, and the English race are influenced by it 

 more than any other. We are Napoleon's nation of shopkeepers, 

 mechanics and stock-jobbers to the fullest extent, who take out our 

 amusements in shares, and raise a joint fund to provide domestic com- 

 fort. Pall Mall is the true House of Commons of the nation— here 

 every political principle is represented, and every shade of society has 

 its point of reunion. In this street of pal.ices, unique in Europe, one 

 of the most striking is the subject of our present notice. 



For the view of this building we are indebted to the Literary World, 

 of whose embellishments it may be considered a very fair specimen, — 

 one certainly greatly superior to any thing to be met with in similar 

 publications. With regard to the structure itself, we shall not now 

 attempt to enter into any architectural description of it, reserving such 

 notice till we have the opportunity of rendering it complete ; and shall 

 therefore at present only observe that the Reform Clubhouse is the 

 most perfect and imposing specimen of Italian architecture in the me- 

 tropolis, — reserving, however, to ourselves, our admiration for the 



No. .'32.— Vol. III.- May, 1810. 



Garden-facade of the Travellers, as the most elegant and piquant exam- 

 ple of that style, upon a lesser scale. In this new work of Mr. Barry's 

 we perceive extreme simplicity and unity of design combined with a 

 very unusual degree of richness, — an astylar (columnless,) with more 

 of architectural expression than is generally produced by a displav of 

 columns forming a principal order The breadth of the piers or spaces 

 between the windows contributes not a little to that repose which is so 

 essential to simplicity, and hardly less so to stateliness. The string 

 courses are particularly beautiful parts in the design, while the 

 cornicione gives an extraordinary air of majesty and grandeur to the 

 whole. 



It is the largest and most commodious of any of the club-houses in 

 the metropolis : the length of the front is ISO feet, exclusive of the 

 entrance between the Travellers' Club-house and the main building, 

 which is fifteen; making, in all, a frontage of 135 feet. The depth of 

 the main building is 104 ft. ti in.; the height of the cornice from tlie 

 pavement, is about sixty-eight feet. 



The roof is covered with Italian tiles, manufactured expressly for 

 this building, by Messrs. Rutledge and Keene, of the Belvedere road. 

 The whole of the building is faced with Portland stone, it is a verj' fine 

 specimen of masonry, and does credit to the contractors, Messrs. 

 Grisell and Peto. We must not omit to mention the scientific manner 

 in which the building was erected; a scaffolding of considerable 

 strength was constructed of timber, and on the top was laid a railway, 

 upon which was worked a traversing crane that could be moved along 

 the building either longitudinally or Iransversely: by this means the 

 stones were raised from the ground and placed on the wall with very little 

 labour to the mason, who only had to adjust the bed and lay the 

 stone. Weperceive that Messrs. Grisell and Peto are about to adoj)t 

 the same plan for the new Houses of Parliament, by which mean* 

 they will save very considerably in the price of labour. 



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