place

Devonshire Club

1874 establishments in England1976 disestablishments in EnglandDefunct clubs and societies of the United KingdomDefunct organisations based in LondonGentlemen's clubs in London
Grade II* listed buildings in the City of WestminsterGrade II listed buildings in the City of WestminsterUnited Kingdom organisation stubs
Crockford's later the Devonshire Club
Crockford's later the Devonshire Club

The Devonshire Club was a London gentlemen's club which was established in 1874 and was disbanded in 1976. Throughout its existence it was based at 50 St James's Street. The major Liberal club of the day was the Reform Club, but in the wake of the 1868 Reform Act's extension of the franchise, the waiting list for membership from the larger electorate grew to such an extent that a new club was formed to accommodate these new Liberal voters. The clubhouse was on the western side of St James's Street. The original intention was to call it the 'Junior Reform Club', along the model of the Junior Carlton Club formed in 1866, but complaints from the Reform Club's members led it to being named the Devonshire, in honour of its first chairman, the Duke of Devonshire, an aristocrat from a long line of Liberals. The club was fortunate in obtaining the St James's Street premises of Crockford's Club, a renowned eighteenth century club which had closed down in 1845. The Devonshire did well in its first decade, but found itself in an awkward position from the 1880s upon the establishment of the National Liberal Club. With a further extension of the franchise in 1885, the much larger National Liberal was aimed at these new electors, and the Devonshire came to possess neither the prestige of Brooks's or the Reform, nor the broader appeal of the National Liberal. The Devonshire soon lost its political flavour. In the 1960s the Golfers Club shared the premises using a club room at the back of the building and there was also a Masonic temple on site, catering for those lodges without premises. After a great deal of financial trouble in the 1970s (mirrored in many other clubs of the time, including the Reform, the Carlton, the St James's, the United University, the Junior Carlton, the Army and Navy, and the United Service Club), it finally closed in 1976, with its membership being absorbed by the East India Club.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Devonshire Club (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Devonshire Club
Piccadilly, City of Westminster Mayfair

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Phone number Website Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Devonshire ClubContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.507387 ° E -0.140579 °
placeShow on map

Address

The Wolseley

Piccadilly 157-160
W1J 9EB City of Westminster, Mayfair
England, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Phone number

call+442074996996

Website
thewolseley.com

linkVisit website

Crockford's later the Devonshire Club
Crockford's later the Devonshire Club
Share experience

Nearby Places

National Institution of Fine Arts

The National Institution of Fine Arts was a short-lived Victorian-era art society founded in London to provide alternative exhibition space for artists. Dante Gabriel Rossetti and Ford Madox Brown notably exhibited there. The organisation began as the "Institution for the Free Exhibition of Modern Art" in 1847 ("Free Exhibition" for short), and mounted shows from 1848–49 in a temporary building known as "St. George's Gallery" on Knightsbridge (road), next to Hyde Park, London. Its purpose was stated in an 1848 catalogue, "Freedom for the Artist, certainty of Exhibition for his works, and the Improvement of the Public Taste." The society then changed its name to the "National Institution of Fine Arts" ("National Institution" for short) and from 1850–61 exhibited works at the old Portland Gallery at 316 Regent Street. The National Institution aimed to provide a less-restrictive and more equitable alternative to the established exhibitions at places like the Royal Academy. The organisers allocated space by lottery, so there was no favouritism, allowed artists more control over the display of their pictures, and space was cheaper — making it more accessible to women artists who suffered discrimination by other exhibiting bodies. The exhibition was "free" in the sense that any artist was welcome to exhibit. Dante Gabriel Rossetti exhibited his first major oil painting, The Girlhood of Mary Virgin, at the Free Exhibition in March 1849, and in April 1850 Ecce Ancilla Domini at the National Institution. Ford Madox Brown also exhibited there in 1848 with Wycliffe reading his Translation of the New Testament to John of Gaunt and in 1849 with The Young Mother and Lear and Cordelia. Robert Scott Lauder was the first president of the National Institution. Chambers's Edinburgh Journal described exhibitors at the National Institution as "..mainly composed of dissenters from the other associations — gentlemen who conceive that they have been ill-treated by Hanging Committees, and a large class of juvenile but promising artists, who resort to the less crowded institutions in the hope of there meeting with better places for their works than in the older and more established bodies".