CHAPTER XIX
Pall Mall, North Side, Existing Buildings
Nos. 13–15 (consec.) Pall Mall
The building now known as Crusader House
at Nos. 13–15 Pall Mall was built in 1892–3 as a
block of service flats and business premises. The
architects were Messrs. W. S. Joseph and C. J.
Smithem, of Finsbury Pavement, (ref. 1) and the
builders were Mark Patrick and Son and J. T.
Chappell. (ref. 2)
Crusader House has a stone front of florid
character, a French Renaissance hotchpotch. The
composition consists of a granite-faced ground
storey, containing a pompous doorway flanked by
pairs of large windows, and an upper face of four
storeys with a five-window-wide centre, slightly
recessed between narrow wings with a three-light
window in each storey. A heavy stone-balustraded
balcony spans the entire front at third-storey
level, and there is an iron-railed balcony to the
five middle windows of the fourth storey. The
richly decorated attic has a five-bay loggia with
paired columns, between rusticated wings, and the
front is finished with elaborate pilastered and
pedimented dormers rising against the steep roofs.
Nos. 16–17 Pall Mall
Nos. 16–17 Pall Mall were built in 1913; the
architects were Messrs. Dunn, Watson and Curtis
Green. The stone-faced front is a freely treated
Renaissance composition with a simply designed
ground storey, a lofty second stage embracing two
storeys, a third stage below the main entablature,
and an attic above. The ground storey contains
three openings, an entrance doorway flanked by
wide show windows. Each storey in the second
stage has three windows, both tiers being united by
their framing and evenly spaced between plain
piers. The upper three windows are furnished
with wrought-iron balconies, and the head of the
framing architraves are broken round friezetablets carved with festoons, these tablets rising
into segmental pediments. The windows of the
third stage each have two lights and are framed
with moulded architraves, broken in at the sides.
The piers between these windows are decorated
with vases in plain niches, and the main entablature
has a plain frieze and a dentilled cornice. In the
attic stage are three simply treated three-light
windows, and four tall dormer windows, dressed
with segmental pediments, project from the slated
roof slope.
No. 22 Pall Mall
No. 22 Pall Mall was built between 1878 and
1880 for the Imperial Insurance Company from
the designs of Messrs. Osborn and Russell of
South Street, Finsbury. (ref. 3) Since 1949 the premises
have been used as the West End branch of the
Scottish Amicable Life Assurance Society, Ltd. (ref. 4)
The building has a narrow front of five
storeys, built in dull-red brick with cut and
moulded ornament, the design showing the influence of Norman Shaw's early 'Queen Anne'
manner. Above the heavy entablature of the
three-bay ground storey, each succeeding storey is
bounded by plain pilasters and finished with an
entablature, its panelled frieze forming the apron
of the window above. The dominant feature is the
shallow three-faced bay containing the second-,
third- and fourth-storey windows, each divided by
mullions and transoms, the latter arched over the
middle light. The wide piers flanking the bay
are ornamented with niches, the upper ones in
tabernacle frames, all coarsely detailed. In the
fifth storey the bay is replaced by a group of three
segmental-headed windows, and the front is
finished with a scrolled segmental pediment over
the middle window.
The Junior Carlton Club
Previous history of part of this site is described on
page 326
In 1864 the waiting list for election to the Carlton Club was so long as to call for the formation of
another club devoted to the promotion of Conservative interests. The first recorded meeting of
the provisional committee of the Junior Carlton
Club was held at the Carlton Club on 11 February 1864, when Viscount Neville (later Marquis of Abergavenny) presided. The foundation
committee, which continued in office until 1870,
consisted of thirty members, of whom eighteen
were members of Parliament. It included Lord
Robert Cecil, who later became the third Marquis of Salisbury and Prime Minister, Lord Naas,
later sixth Earl of Mayo and Viceroy and GovernorGeneral of India, Frederick Lygon (later sixth
Earl Beauchamp), who helped in the foundation
of Keble College, Oxford, James Lowther, later
chief secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,
and Sir Richard Bromley, an eminent civil servant. (ref. 5)
At a meeting held on 15 June 1864 in Victoria
Street it was decided that the club should consist of
1500 members, and on 1 July temporary quarters
were opened at No. 14 Regent Street. (ref. 6) In
response to advertisements for permanent accommodation several sites or buildings in St. James's
Street, Regent Street and Piccadilly were considered; the site in Pall Mall was selected because
it was freehold and easily accessible from the
Houses of Parliament. (ref. 7)
The site was eventually acquired in 1866 after
some delay in purchasing the interests of the
tenants in occupation; it had frontages of some
120 feet to both Pall Mall and St. James's Square,
and had previously been occupied by six small
houses. (ref. 8) It did not include Adair House at the
western extremity of the block on the north side
of Pall Mall and backing on to the square, which
was not purchased by the club until 1880.
Building work began in the latter part of 1866,
the architect being David Brandon and the contractors Lucas Brothers, whose tender was for
£35,545. (ref. 9) There appears to have been some
modification of the design during the course of
erection, for an engraving published in The Builder
in July 1867 shows the cornice one storey higher
than as actually built. (ref. 10) The club-house was completed in 1869 (ref. 6) (Plate 120) in which year a fire
caused considerable damage on the ground floor,
and to the roof which was in great part destroyed. (ref. 11)
In 1873 Adair House, which adjoined the west
end of the club-house as it then was, was sold by
auction for £35,500. The Junior Carlton Club
had previously offered a larger sum for this house, (ref. 12)
which was ultimately purchased by the club in
1880 (ref. 6) for £25,000. (ref. 13) This acquisition increased
the club's frontage by some forty-five feet, and in
1885–6 the club-house was enlarged by the
addition of a morning-room, library and billiardroom on the site of Adair House. The principal
entrance was removed from the eastern extremity
to the centre of the Pall Mall front, where an
open portico was formed; bay windows were
added on to the ground floor at the east and west
ends of the Pall Mall front. The new entrance
hall was ornamented with marble, and the staircase was reconstructed. The architect was J.
Macvicar Anderson and the contractors Messrs.
Holland and Hannen (Plates 121, 123). (ref. 11)
In 1923 the roof of the building was reconstructed to provide bedrooms for members; the
architect was W. E. Watson. (ref. 15) In 1925 the freehold of No. 29 Pall Mall and No. 23 St. James's
Square, which adjoined the east end of the clubhouse, was acquired and in 1929–30 reconstructed
to provide a ladies' annexe; two squash courts
were erected in the roof of the main building. The
architects were Sydney Tatchell and Geoffrey
Wilson. The roof was completed in its present
form in 1936 by the addition of another squash
court at the west end; the architect was F. J.
Wills. (ref. 15) In 1955 Nos. 29 Pall Mall and 23 St.
James's Square were sold, and the present ladies'
annexe is incorporated in the main building. (ref. 16)
One of the club's notable possessions is the
circular table which formerly belonged to Benjamin Disraeli, a trustee of the club, and which
was used by him for political meetings at his house
in Dover Street from 1868 to 1874. (ref. 16)
Architectural description
The club-house completed in 1869, from David
Brandon's designs, was an oblong building with a
frontage to Pall Mall of about 120 feet, the same
to St. James's Square, and a depth of about 63 feet
(Plate 120). The planning was simple and effective, with rooms north and south of a wall running
lengthwise, dividing each floor into two parts of
almost equal width. On the ground floor, the part
fronting south to Pall Mall contained the morningroom, 89 feet long and 27 feet wide, divided by a
columned screen into two compartments, a square
to the west of an oblong. At the east end was the
hall, 27 feet wide and 23 feet 6 inches deep, with a
short flight of steps rising to an ante, serving a
reception-room, 29 feet 6 inches wide and 20 feet
6 inches deep, and opening on the west to a corridor extending behind the morning-room as far as
the smoking-room, 28 feet wide and 29 feet
6 inches deep, filling the north-west corner of the
plan. The corridor was open to a spacious staircase well just off the centre of the north range,
having on its west side the secondary stairs and a
service-room, and on its east side a cloak-room.
The southern part of the first floor was mostly
taken up by the coffee-room, having the unbroken
length of 90 feet and a width of 27 feet, with a
glazed screen at the west end opening to the
strangers' coffee-room. This room was a square
of 27 feet with an apse on its north side where
doors led to the house dining-room, 28 feet wide
and 20 feet 6 inches deep. On the east side of
the principal staircase, and filling the north-east
angle of the plan, was the library, 40 feet wide and
29 feet 6 inches deep. The principal staircase
continued to the second floor, where there were
two billiard-rooms, a visitors' smoking-room, and
offices, together with eighteen bedrooms for
members. The top storey contained bedroom
and dormitory accommodation for some fifty
servants; in the basement-mezzanine were
members' baths and dressing-rooms, and headstaff accommodation; and in the basement was
the large kitchen, 40 feet by 29 feet, with all
its offices. (ref. 7)
J. Macvicar Anderson's drawings for the
alterations and addition made in 1885–6 are preserved in the library of the Royal Institute of
British Architects (Plate 121). His western addition, on the site of Adair House, provided one
great room on each principal floor, a library above
a morning-room, and a billiard-room on the second
floor. The ground floor of the original building
was extensively altered to form a new entrance hall
in the middle of the lengthened south front, with a
square writing-room on the west and a large Lshaped smoking-room on the east. A columned
screen divides the hall into two compartments, the
northern one opening to the spacious oblong
staircase compartment, two storeys high, with the
stair rising to a wide landing on the east where a
smaller staircase serves the upper floors. The
first-floor coffee-room, already long, was almost
doubled in size by taking in the strangers' coffeeroom at the west end, and by forming a columned
screen opening to the former library on the north
front.
When designing the exterior (Plate 120a),
Brandon turned away from the extravagant Venetian club-houses lately built nearby, and looked to
Barry's chaste Roman palazzi. The north and
south fronts are both astylar, but that facing the
square seems to reflect Bridgwater House in a
rather crowded composition with a recessed centre,
five windows wide with the middle one accented,
and flanks each two windows wide, whereas the
Pall Mall front echoes the serene unbroken tiers of
windows of the Reform Club. A note of mid-Victorian restlessness appears in the ground storey
of this front, where, originally, seven round-arched
windows were set in a rusticated arcade, with heavy
moulded archivolts rising from enriched imposts.
At each end projected a Doric porch with two
columns of red granite, that to the east serving the
entrance, and that to the west framing a shallow
bow window—an arrangement copied, no doubt,
from the Conservative Club. The smooth ashlar
face of the second storey contained nine evenly
spaced windows with boldly articulated tabernacleframes, the Corinthian columns with red granite
shafts and the segmental pediments filled with
carving, as at Bridgwater House. The third storey
had nine round-arched windows in triangular pedimented frames, providing one Farnesian effect
absent from the Reform Club. Brandon originally
intended to include an attic storey with nine
almost square windows below the great bracketed
main entablature, and to dress the crowning
balustrade with tall-necked urns. (ref. 7)
When Macvicar Anderson extended the building westwards, he recomposed this front with his
customary skill (Plates 121a, 122a). In the centre
of the lengthened ground storey he formed an imposing new porch with paired columns (probably
using the original granite shafts) and at each end
he added a large splay-sided bay, with an archheaded window in each face, and a Doric entablature matching that of the porch. Three windows,
one of them blind, all dressed and spaced to match
those existing, were added to each upper storey,
and to avoid the solecism of an even number of
windows with a solid pier over the void of the
porch, he united the middle two openings to form
a three-light window in the centre of each tier.
This treatment was echoed on the narrow west
elevation, where each upper storey contains a threelight window between niches in tabernacle-frames.
The St. James's Square front was a fixed composition of three parts, strongly defined by rusticated
piers, to which he could only add. Fortunately,
both fronts shared the same horizontal dressings,
so that his addition is well related to the new west
front and to the original north front. Its dominating feature is a wide canted bay, windowed in each
face, rising through two storeys. The flat face
of the third storey contains three windows, the
middle one pedimented, which open to the
balustraded flat over the bay.
The later additions have not been so successfully
integrated with the original building, the former
ladies' annexe on the east (which is not now part
of the club) by reason of its small-scaled fenestration, and the two-storeyed roof structure because
of its great bulk.
Macvicar Anderson was responsible for much
of the present interior decoration, which is in the
grand manner, rich and Italianate in style. Great
use is made of coloured marbles and scagliola, particularly in the entrance hall and principal staircase where the white marble stairs, with a massive
balustrade of grey and yellow marble or scagliola,
rises round the north, west and south walls of the
oblong two-storeyed compartment, its east side
formed by superimposed colonnades of widely
spaced square columns with panelled scagliola
shafts. The lower colonnade opens to the north
compartment of the entrance hall, where the
monumental chimneypiece is flanked by marble
statues of Lord Beaconsfield and the fourteenth
Earl of Derby, the latter carved by William
Theed, junior. (ref. 17)
The upper colonnade opens to a second staircase well, containing the iron-railed staircase to
the upper storeys (Plate 122b). Both staircase
wells have flat ceilings, divided by guilloche-ribs
into a geometrical pattern of compartments.
The morning-room (Plate 123b), on the ground
floor of Macvicar Anderson's extension, is a large
oblong room with a three-light bay window in
each end wall, and three windows in the long west
wall, one in each of the three bays into which the
wall is divided by paired pilasters responding to the
free-standing columns on the east side. An Ionic
order is used, the columns and pilasters have green
marbled scagliola shafts, and the rich entablature is
carried round the walls, surrounding a ceiling
divided into compartments, that in the centre being
circular. In each end bay of the east wall is a fireplace, with a massive chimneypiece of brownfigured marble—scrolled consoles flanking an
architrave, with a frieze and plain tablet below the
cornice-shelf. The writing-room (now a bar) was
part of the original morning-room, and the compartmented ceiling with its large central octagon
is probably original. The elegant chimneypiece,
in white and Siena marbles, appears to be a mid
eighteenth-century example and is said to have
come from Adair House.
The strangers' room (originally library) is on
the first floor over the morning-room, to which it
is in many respects similar. Here, however, a
Corinthian order is employed, and the fireplaces
are in the west wall flanking a shallow bay window
not expressed externally. The middle bay on the
east side contains a monumental bookcase, and
there are small dado-high bookcases in the flanking bays. The coffee-room (Plate 123a) impresses
with its unusual length, and its unbroken ceiling,
formed in a repeating pattern of octagons,
hexagons, and squares, surrounded by a shallow
ribbed cove. At the west end, and at the east
end of the north side, are screens of Corinthian
columns, with red-figured marbled scagliola shafts,
opening to the west and north-east compartments.
The Army and Navy Club
See page 180
No. 40 Pall Mall
The present building on this site was erected in
1850, the architects being Messrs. Garland and
Christopher; John Clemence was the builder. (ref. 18)
The new building was first occupied by two insurance companies. (ref. 4) The tall and narrow front is an
Italianate design, carried out in painted stucco.
Apart from the shop-front, the ground storey
appears to be original, with one wide and one narrow bay divided by rustic piers, the courses
alternately wide and narrow, ending in consoles
with lion-head stops flanking the fascia. The
upper part of the front is dominated by a shallow
segmental bow containing the two windows of the
second, third and fourth storeys, all dressed with
architraves, those in the second storey being
finished with triangular pediments, and those in
the third storey with plain friezes and cornices.
Flanking the bow are plain-shafted Corinthian
pilasters, raised on tall rusticated pedestals and
supporting the bracketed entablature that finishes
the bow. The flat face of the fifth storey is
bounded by panelled pilasters and contains two
casement windows, and the front is finished with a
balustrade.
Nos. 44 and 45 Pall Mall
From at least 1740 until about 1905 No. 44
was used as a tavern called the Star and Garter. (fn. a)
The first known licensed victualler to occupy the
premises was Alexander Frazer in 1740. (ref. 19) He
had previously kept another tavern in Pall Mall,
for he is recorded as a licensee 'of Pall Mall' as
early as 1729; (ref. 20) his name does not appear in the
ratebooks until 1740. Until the middle of the nineteenth century No. 45 was occupied by tradesmen
and shopkeepers, and thereafter by a succession of
solicitors, insurance companies and banks, including
that of King and Company from 1869 to 1903. (ref. 21)
In an obituary notice of Sir Charles Barry The
Builder states that Pall Mall 'possesses two
ordinary house façades of great cleverness,
executed by Barry'. (ref. 22) This statement does not, of
course, refer to the Travellers' Club or to the
Reform Club, or to the building occupied by the
Imperial Fire Assurance Company, all of which
are mentioned elsewhere in the obituary notice,
and it may be that it refers to Nos. 44–45 Pall
Mall. The ratebooks indicate that the two houses
were rebuilt in 1840–1, when Barry was at the
height of his fame.
Although the existing house-fronts have been
faced with unpainted cement, coursed with
imitation stone jointing, something of their
original character remains. Above the modern
ground storey is a plain face containing the secondand third-storey windows. No. 44 has one threelight window to each storey, the lower being
flanked by Doric pilasters with consoles supporting a projecting cornice-hood that forms a balcony
to the upper window. In No. 45 there are two
windows to each storey, the lower having roundarched openings framed in unbroken moulded
architraves, the upper being plain but for the
moulded sills resting on triglyph-brackets. A wide
and plain band appears to replace the original
entablature, above which is the attic storey.
No. 44 has a group of three round-arched windows, with moulded archivolts rising from plain
imposts; No. 45 has two plain rectangular windows set in a recessed face between two pilasters.
No. 44 is finished with a small-scale arcaded
parapet, behind which is a three-light dormer, and
No. 45 has a balustraded parapet half concealing
two dormers. No. 44 has been occupied since
1908 by the Royal Exchange Assurance, which
now also occupies No. 45. (ref. 4)
No. 49 Pall Mall
Previous history of the site is described on page 327
No. 49 Pall Mall was built between 1894 and
1897 from the designs of Henry Hyman Collins
and Marcus Evelyn Collins of 61 Old Broad
Street. The builder was Henry Lovatt of York
Road, King's Cross. The ground floor was
designed to serve as shops or offices, and most of
the upper floors as service flats.
During the war of 1939–45 the back wing of
the building was damaged by enemy action. Between 1945 and 1952 the whole premises,
together with those of No. 48 Pall Mall, were
converted into offices for the headquarters of the
British Legion. This involved the complete
rebuilding of No. 48, which had been seriously
damaged by enemy action. The original façade of
No. 49 was retained unaltered, and that of the
new No. 48 designed to blend with it. The
architects were Messrs. Douglas and J. D.
Wood. (ref. 23)
Above the altered ground storey, which embraces No. 48, rises a stone front of frilly French
Renaissance character, containing three principal
and two attic storeys. A pair of wide canted bays
rise through the three principal storeys and are
linked in the third by an arch with a cartouche
keystone. The bays are flanked by Corinthian
columns on tall pedestals, carrying an entablature
which continues round the bays and above the
linking arch. Each attic storey contains three twolight windows, the middle forming part of an
accented feature flanked by superimposed pairs of
Doric pilasters. In the sloping roof are three
pedimented dormers and, above them, three
circular lights.
No. 52 Pall Mall
Formerly the Marlborough (Windham) Club: previous
history of this site is described on page 335
The Marlborough Club was established in or
shortly before 1868 by the Prince of Wales (later
Edward VII) and a group of his friends for the
purpose of securing 'a convenient and agreeable
place of meeting for a Society of Gentlemen'. (ref. 24)
The institution of the club 'was the Prince's mode
of protest against the restrictions on smoking
which were imposed on him at White's Club'.
The first trustees of the club, which took its name
from Marlborough House, the Prince's London
residence, were the Duke of Sutherland, the Earl
of Leicester and Lord Wharncliffe; the first
chairman of the committee was Viscount Walden,
afterwards ninth Marquis of Tweeddale. (ref. 25)
In May 1868 the Marlborough Club purchased for £18,000 the freehold of the British
Institution at No. 52 Pall Mall, and shortly afterwards a new club-house was erected upon the site;
the architect was David Brandon, and the contractors Messrs. Trollope and Sons. (ref. 26)
For the narrow front of the Marlborough Club,
David Brandon designed a bold and simple elevation in a restrained Jacobean manner (Plate 124b).
It was stone-faced and comprised three storeys,
defined by moulded stringcourses. The ground
storey contained two openings, a plain roundheaded window on the right, and the entrancedoorway on the left, also round-headed but dressed
with enriched pilasters and a moulded architrave.
Between these openings was a square pier, helping
to support the moulded corbelling of the large
canted bay which dominated the front and contained the mullioned-and-transomed windows of
the second and third storeys. This bay was
finished with a balustrade, stopped against the
curved and stepped crowning gable.
Photographs reproduced in Country Life (ref. 24)
show that the interior was simply decorated, and
that the coffee-room was divided into the customary three compartments by Ionic columns
paired with antae against the long side walls.
Until his accession to the throne the Prince of
Wales used the club constantly. (ref. 24) The membership was limited to 450, and the entrance fee and
annual subscription were high. (ref. 27) After Edward
VII's death in 1910 George V succeeded him as
president and patron. (ref. 24)
On 31 December 1945 the Windham, Orleans
and Marlborough Clubs amalgamated to form the
Marlborough-Windham Club. Rising costs and
lack of candidates for admission compelled this
club to close in December 1953. (ref. 24) In 1954–5 the
building was converted to office use; an extra
storey was added and the façade was altered and
refaced with reconstructed Portland stone. (ref. 28)
No. 54 Pall Mall
Messrs. Foster, auctioneers, occupied the site of
this building from the early 1830's until 1940. (ref. 29)
The front part of the premises facing Pall Mall
was rebuilt in 1890–1 from the designs of Messrs.
Karslake and Mortimer, architects and surveyors,
of Old Queen Street. The back portion, referred
to in 1885 as 'the gallery', was not included in
this rebuilding, and appears to have been reconstructed in 1931. (ref. 30)
The Pall Mall front is built of stone and contains a semi-basement, four main storeys, and an
attic. The design is a curious blend of medieval
and classical motifs, the ground storey being rusticated and fronted by a portico of two bays, with
three rusticated Ionic columns supporting an
entablature and a balustrade which serves as a
balcony to the second storey. The narrow frontage allows only three closely spaced windows to
each upper storey, set in a face of smooth ashlar
which is laced over with a web of wrought-iron
balconies, and rises to form a steeply pitched gable,
framed by a distorted pediment in which is set a
Venetian window.
Nos. 64 and 64a Pall Mall and Nos. 1 and 2 St. James's Street
The present building at Nos. 64 and 64a Pall
Mall and 1 and 2 St. James's Street is a wellknown work of the architect Richard Norman
Shaw (Plate 272a). It was erected in 1882–3, the
corner premises on the ground floor being occupied by the Alliance Assurance Company. The
remainder of the ground floor was divided into two
shops, one in Pall Mall and one in St. James's
Street, and an entrance lobby from St. James's
Street to twelve suites of residential chambers on
the upper floors. Kitchens and service rooms
occupied the basement and attics. The subbasement was intended for use as a wine vault. (ref. 31)
Building work appears to have begun early in
1882, and the new premises were completed in
1883. (ref. 32) The builders were Messrs. Cubitt &
Co. (ref. 31)
Built of warm red brick liberally coursed with
plain stone bands, and richly dressed with moulded
brick and carved stonework, this prominently sited
building belongs to Norman Shaw's most romantic
'Old Heidelberg' phase. There are four storeys,
the first two very lofty, and two floors in the
roof, with windows in the two great gables. In
each face of the ground storey are two shop-fronts,
recessed in wide round-arched openings, the
arches of brick and stone voussoirs springing from
dwarf piers and having splayed reveals and keystones, the last surmounted by console-trusses
supporting the long iron-railed balconies of the
second storey. Between the arches of the St.
James's Street front is the main doorway, with a
doorcase of banded pilasters and a cornice-hood on
consoles. The upper face of each front contains
three tiers of mullioned-and-transomed windows,
a sequence of five towards Pall Mall, and two
groups of three towards St. James's Street, the
southern group contained in a recessed face.
Between the tall twice-transomed windows of the
second storey are Ionic pilasters on pedestals,
the upper windows being divided by simple stonebanded pilasters and having apron panels of
moulded brickwork. The angle of the building is
boldly emphasized by an octagonal turret, corbelled out from the ground storey and containing
in each of its exposed faces four windows, one
over the other, varying in width and except for the
top one finished with Baroque pediments, a
different design for each storey. This turret is
capped with an oversailing roof, but this is overtopped by the great gable of the Pall Mall front,
containing two tiers of windows, five beneath two,
and rising in ogee curves and console-flanked
steppings to finish with a bold scrolled pediment.
A similar, but smaller gable rises above the projecting northern part of the St. James's Street
front, containing three windows below one, and
finishing with a segmental pediment. The tall
chimney-stacks, and an elaborate weather-vane
rising from the turret roof, add complexity to the
skyline.