The Royal Automobile Club
THE ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB, 89-91, PALL MALL SW1
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1065860
- Date first listed:
- 05-Feb-1970
- List Entry Name:
- The Royal Automobile Club
- Statutory Address:
- THE ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB, 89-91, PALL MALL SW1
Location
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Images of England Project
- Date:
- 2007-04-02
- Reference:
- IOE01/16463/04
- Rights:
- © Mr Anthony Rau. Source: Historic England Archive
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II*
- List Entry Number:
- 1065860
- Date first listed:
- 05-Feb-1970
- List Entry Name:
- The Royal Automobile Club
- Statutory Address 1:
- THE ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB, 89-91, PALL MALL SW1
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
- Statutory Address:
- THE ROYAL AUTOMOBILE CLUB, 89-91, PALL MALL SW1
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Greater London Authority
- District:
- City of Westminster (London Borough)
- Parish:
- Non Civil Parish
- National Grid Reference:
- TQ 29543 80225
Details
TQ 2980 SE CITY OF WESTMINSTER PALL MALL, SW1 82/69 (south side) 5.2.70 Nos. 89 to 91 consec: The Royal Automobile Club G.V. II* Grand club-house. 1908-11 by Charles Mewes and Arthur Davis with E. Keynes Purchase. Steel frame and concrete cased in Portland stone slate roof. Palatial Dixhuitieme elevation derived from Gabriel's Place de la Concorde facades and equally appropriately, J.H. Mansart's Place Vendrome. (c.f. the pavilion occupied by the Ritz Hotel and fitted out for Ritz by Mewes.) 3 main storeys, basement and dormered mansard. Slightly advanced 3 window wide pedimented centrepiece pavilion flanked by 6-window wide wings. Channelled ground floor with central entrance having a finely proportioned architrave doorcase with panelled reveals (flanked by narrow side windows), the head framed by large rich console brackets surmounted by stone balustered balcony in the Gabriel manner. The wings have semicircular arched windows, their metal casements recessed in concave reveals. On the upper floors the windows have architraves with cornices to the French casements of the "bel stage" and panelled aprons and enriched keys on the 2nd floor. Both floors are articulated by a grand giant Ionic order, engaged to the wings and free standing in antis to the centrepiece, both the latter and the wings flanked by broad piers with wreathed Gabriel cartouches and pendant trophies, supporting a modillion corniced entablature with carving in the frieze over the piers and with the centrepiece surmounted by a figure sculptured pediment. Balustrades between the pedestals of the giant order and balustraded parapet fronting the dormers with iron flambeau-vases above the terminal piers. Balustraded area with 4 lampstandards and ornate bracket lamps flanking central entrances. The rear to Carlton Gardens has an elevation more reminiscent of Francois Mansart or Le Vau in the plastic modelling of its planes. Interior an excellent example of Beaux Arts planning on the grand scale with vast public rooms decorated in "stuc" in very convincing (if typically rather overscaled) late Louis XV/Louis XVI or Grand Siecle style by Boulanger and by Remon of Paris combined with Palladian and neo-Chambers interiors by Lenygon and Morant; spectacular basement "Pompeian" swimming pool with scale patterned mosaic columns of a type previously designed by Mewes for the Gallery and Spring Pavilion at Contrexeville Spa (Vosges); etc. French stone carvers and blacksmiths were also employed by Mewes for the facades. Survey of London; Vol. XXXIV. London 1900;AD Profiles 13: Gavin Stamp.
Listing NGR: TQ2952080203
Legacy
The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.
- Legacy System number:
- 422691
- Legacy System:
- LBS
Sources
Books and journals
Stamp, G, London 1900, (1978)
Survey of London in The Parish of St Anne Soho: Volumes 33 and 34 , Vol. 34, (1966)
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 06-Jun-2026 at 17:01:00.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.