Naval and Military Club

Details

1900/80/110
24-FEB-58

PICCADILLY W1
(North side)
94
Naval and Military Club
WHITE HORSE STREET
12
Naval and Military Club

GV
I

the address shall be amended to read as "no.94 (the former Naval and Military Club)(including front wall and no.12 White Horse Street)", and the description shall be amended to read as follows: Town Mansion. 1756-1760 by Matthew Brettingham (1699-1769) for Lord Egremont. The present structure is the result of at least two and possibly three C19 building phases: one dating to c1822, when the house became the residence of the Marquess of Cholmondley, steward of the royal household and a friend of George IV; the second dating to after 1829 when the house assumed semi-royal status as the London house of the Duke of Cambridge, seventh son
of George III; and finally after 1876 when the lease was taken by the Naval and Military Club. The architect for this final phase was J McVicar Anderson. Faced in Portland ashlar; courtyard elevations in brick with stone dressings. Front wall and gate piers of Portland stone and yellow brick, with wrought-iron gates and cast-iron lanterns and torcheres. Hipped roof of slate to forecourt. A detached Palladian styled hotel particulier set back from the street behind a forecourt, the right-hand side bounded by the return wall of no. 93 Piccadilly (q.v.) and the left by a single storey range of 3 windows to the forecourt with a tripartite window and rusticated basement
to Piccadilly; the latter wing appears to date from the mid to late C19. Main block has three storeys and a seven-window range,three windows at centre project in a shallow, pedimented bay. The centre window, first floor,with serlian motif opens on to the 'Cambridge Room'. French doors to first-floor balcony; the windows with moulded architraves and pediments. Square windows with moulded architraves to second floor, or attic storey. Distyle in antis, Tuscan porch to entrance in centre range; Tuscan aedicule with pediment frames entrance. The first floor balcony and entrance porch are of a mid to late C19 date. All windows and doors flat arched unless otherwise noted. The interior is of exceptional interest, not just for the surviving works by Matthew Brettingham
and the unkown early C19 architects, but also for MacVicar Anderson's works. The following description begins with entrance foyer and front hall to the west. The screen wall between, like most of the decorative detailing, is of c.1876, except for the marble fireplace, west wall, front hall, which appears to date from the late C18. The foyer, front hall, long corridor and passage into the single storey wing are floored with black and white tesserae. The long corridor runs along the western edge of the rear courtyard and is actually shared between 94 Piccadilly and 12 White Horse Street without visible break. The long corridor is formed from a series of rib-vaulted bays with Tuscan piers and responds. It dates to c1876, as does the Smoking Room which is entered about midway along the corridor's length. The Smoking Room is also the work of MacVicar Anderson; it has an L-shaped plan, one arm of which opens onto the interior courtyard; the other returns on a north-south axis to the forecourt and opens onto the stair wall (see below). The Smoking Room is articulated into a series of bays by luted Ionic pilasters and piers; richly moulded entablature fireplaces and door surrounds, some of the latter may be late C18 in date suggesting the style of this room was suggested by original work. In the north east corner of the room is a marble fireplace of authentic late C18 design; frieze of ivy leaves in subtle, elegant pattern; mythological figure in low relief and cameo
portraits. Long corridor continues to the rear of the site, still within the limits of no.12 White Horse Street. Here, in a high single storey block of brick, is the coffee room, designed by MacVicar Anderson in a late C18 style: rectangular plan and lit by round-arched windows to the north; Ionic pilasters and columns; rectangular alcoves to north, east and west; pair of late C19 Adam-style fireplaces flanking alcove to north; above entablature a series of round-arched tympana; in the centre, ceiling heightens and has a coved cornice.
Of particular note is the cast-iron verandah, consisting of slender elegantly proportioned cast-iron colonnettes with lean-to roof this runs along the west and north sides of the inner courtyard and appears to date from the 1820s or early 1830s; the stone balustrade on which it is carried may be of the same date or even somewhat later. The great stair hall is in the centre range, at the centre of the original blocks; the stair rises in three flights; its treads are very likely original; the cast-iron balustrade dates to c1876 as do the wall decoration and domed skylight. On the first floor, or piano nobile, is a suite of three rooms facing the forecourt: to the east, the Palmerston Room - three-windows wide and roughly square in plan, its walls ornamented with stucco bas reliefs, swags, cornices and dado panels; ornamental ceiling; on the east and
north walls are a gilded door surround, now blocked, and mirror- two details suggest that these features date to the 1820s as they show a marked affinity for Empire style work. The marble chimney piece in the east wall is later C18 and a very fine example of its type. The Cambridge Room is at the centre of the elevation; the decorative details (which include four concave, round -arched niches) appear to be C19, except, that is, for the pilasters, responds and architraves to the tripartite window, which appear original. The room to the west, the Egremont Room, was rebuilt after extensive bomb damage in WWII to original designs. To the rear of the Palmerston Room is the long Regimental Room with decorative details of a late C18 date and the most splendid Brettingham chimneypiece of all, featuring a pair of female, toga-clad figures carrying baskets of fruit. To the west of this room, on axis with the entrance, is the Octagon Room, eight-sided as its name suggests: especially fine pair of pedimented doorcases and a splendid 1870s chimney piece and overmantel in a Rococo Revival Style; coffering to coved ceiling. The front wall, attached to the west wing, with two gates and two doors and surmounted with lanterns and torcheres, is celebrated for its gate piers which bear the painted legends 'IN' and 'OUT', which gave the club its popular name of the 'In and Out Club'. No.42 Half Moon Street was built for the Naval and Military Club in 1921-2: this is a distinct structure with its own entrance and is not included in this listing. No 94 Piccadilly was lived in by Lord Palmerston from 1857 until his death in 1865; his occupancy is commemorated by a 1961 London County Council plaque in the forecourt wall (q.v).
Sources: Country Life, 20 June 1991,pp.100-3 The Builder, 2 February 1877; R Nevill, London Clubs, 1911 A Lejeune, The Gentlemen's Clubs of London,1979. This amendment supercedes the 88th amendment of the 156th list.

Listing NGR: TQ2881380189

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

424195

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Lejeune, A, The Gentlemens Clubs of London, (1979)
Nevill, R, London Clubs, (1911)
The Builder in 2 February, (1877)
Country Life in 20 June, (1991), 100-103

End of official list entry

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