The Georgian aristocracy lived life to the full. They loved eating, drinking, carousing, partying, racing and… gambling.
During the Regency, most – if not all – of these could be
enjoyed in one of the growing number of gentlemen’s clubs which thrived in the
fair city of London. According to Captain Gronow, in his Anecdotes and Reminiscences, written at the end of the Napoleonic
Wars, the West End of London was home to only a few, prestigious such
establishments. These were White’s – the oldest and most elite – Boodle’s,
Brooks’, Watier’s, the Guards’, Arthur’s and Graham’s.
These bastions of male society sprang, in the main, from
gatherings of like-minded gentlemen in coffee houses and taverns. The Jockey
Club is said to have had its beginnings at the Star and Garter on Pall Mall,
while Brooks’ and Boodle’s began at two neighbouring taverns owned by William
Almack in the same area, and White’s originated as a chocolate house on
Chesterfield Street, off Curzon Street in Mayfair.
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| Chocolate House |
White’s
Originally called ‘Mrs. White’s Chocolate House’, White’s
was opened in 1693 by Francesco Bianco (also known as Francis White), an
Italian immigrant. At the time, hot chocolate was expensive and therefore a
commodity enjoyed by the wealthy. From the start, White’s attracted the most
influential members of the haut ton
and it soon became better known as an exclusive gambling club. After occupying
several locations on St. James’s Street, in 1778 it took up residence at
numbers 37-38, its home to this day.
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| White's Club, by Paul Farmer |
Fortunes have been won and lost within its genteel rooms,
the play frequently being for high stakes. Cards were the medium of choice, the
preferred game being whist.
While the membership boasted most of the noblest names in
the country, wealth, birth and wit did not guarantee acceptance to the hallowed
rooms. When a new member was proposed, a ballot took place. At least twelve
members voted with either a white ball (acceptance) or a black ball. One black
ball meant the applicant was denied. It was soon the ambition of every young
gentleman new on the town to be elected.
That famed arbiter of fashion, Beau Brummell, who became
a member in 1789, made the club into the haunt of the dandy set, whereupon the
celebrated bow window and the table directly in front of it, became his
preserve. He dictated whom might sit there and decreed that no gentleman should
acknowledge anyone passing by in the street. However, it was not unknown for
the dandies to pass pithy comments on any gentleman and ogle any woman bold
enough to be walking by. This group of elite dandies included Lord Petersham,
Lord Pierrepoint, 2nd Baron Alvanley, ‘Poodle’ Byng, the Duke of
Argyll, Lord Worcester, Lord Sefton, Lord Foley, ‘Ball’ Hughes and Sir Lumley
Skeffington. After Brummell’s removal to the Continent in 1816, Lord Alvanley
took over the Beau’s seat and it was at this time he purportedly made the
famous bet of £3,000 with a friend on the outcome of two raindrops running down
the bow window. White’s Betting Book has seen many bizarre bets
over the years, on social matters – marriages, deaths and gossip – sporting
events and, in particular, developments in politics, both at home and on the
Continent.
White’s was for some time a citadel of the Tory party, as
Brooks’ was for the Whigs, yet many members of the club either belonged to the
other party (and the other club) or had no political affiliation. From about
1832, the club renounced such leanings and has remained apolitical ever since.
Brooks’
Brooks’, Brooks’s or Brookes’s Subscription-House (as
described in Ackermann’s Microcosm of
London) started life at 50, Pall Mall, a tavern owned by William Almack,
owner of Almack’s Assembly Rooms. When two gentlemen were rejected by White’s,
they formed a private society. This later dissolved, the various members
separating into two groups, the second later to evolve into Boodle’s.
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| Brooks', by Debonairchap |
The first group was initially
called Almack’s and met at 49 Pall Mall, another tavern owned by William Almack,
hence the name. Founded by several Whig noblemen, including the Duke of
Roxburghe, the Duke of Portland, Lord Strathmore and Lord Crewe, in 1764, other
prominent members were Charles James Fox (a precocious admission the following
year, aged sixteen), the Prince Regent, the Dukes of Clarence and York, Lord
Carlisle, William Lamb and Lord Robert Spencer. Less exalted, perhaps, in
Society, yet nevertheless celebrated in other spheres, were Joshua Reynolds,
Horace Walpole, David Garrick and Richard Brinsley Sheridan.
Around 1777, the manager of
Almack’s, wine merchant and money lender William Brooks, commissioned Henry
Holland to build a house on St. James’s Street (now number 60). It was a bold
move, but the members of Almack’s joined him at the new premises and Brooks’
was born. Limited to a membership of 450, a ballot was held during Parliament
to decide on member nominations, a black ball system used as at White’s. For a
subscription of eleven guineas per annum, members were entitled to admission to
Miles’ and other respectable clubs, as well as clubs in Bath.
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| The Great Subscription Room at Brooks', 37' long, 22' wide, 25' high |
The Palladian style building
was renowned for its gambling saloons and had its main suite of neoclassical
rooms on the first floor. These were the Great Subscription Room, the Card Room
and the Small Drawing Room. There was no billiard table and according to
Ackermann, the game of Hazard was rarely played, the fashionable card games
being whist, piquet, quinze and macao. It was a common occurrence for gambling
to continue all night; sometimes play went on all day and all night, fortunes
being lost and won in the process. As with White’s, many an unusual wager has
been recorded in the Brooks’ Betting Book.
One reads as follows:
“[Ma]rch 11, 1774, Almack’s. Lord Clermont has given Mr. Crawford ten
guineas upon the condition of receiving 500l. from him whenever Mr. Charles Fox
shall be worth 100,000l. clear of debts.”
In his book about Ian
Fleming’s James Bond, John Griswold quotes another, far more shocking, wager from
Dr L.G. Mitchell’s biography of Charles James Fox. It seems that in 1785, the 1st
Marquess of Cholmondeley gave two guineas to the 12th Earl of Derby
against five hundred guineas received when his lordship engaged in a certain
activity with a woman (of ill-repute, one assumes) in a balloon one thousand
yards in the air. It does, however, reveal the level to which even the titled
could sink. One cannot help wondering if this was the beginning of the Mile
High Club…
While Beau Brummell was the
leader at White’s, Charles Fox was the undisputed ruler at Brooks’, even though
Brummell was a member. The emphasis on gambling declined during the early
nineteenth century with Brooks’ becoming more an ‘association of noblemen and
gentlemen, connected by politics…’
Boodle’s
Boodle’s began life at 50, Pall Mall
in 1762. Founded by the future Marquess of Lansdowne, Lord Shelburne, it is the
second oldest club in the world after White’s. The house was owned by William
Almack and later Edward Boodle. It is thought they were partners. Boodle is
variously described as the manager or head waiter. A board of six governed the
club until 1879. The number was reduced to five from 1881 and fifteen years
later it became a members’ club.
Edward Boodle died in February 1772
and Benjamin Harding took over the running of the club. Sanctioned by a general
meeting, he bought the house at 28, St. James’s Street, built by Nicholas
Kenney in 1775-6 for the short-lived Savoir Vivre club. Boodle’s moved to the
new house in 1782-3 and has remained there ever since.
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| Boodle's, by Debonairchap |
Originally a political club, Boodle’s
soon became renowned for its fine food, gambling and calm atmosphere and thus,
in the main, was patronized by those gentleman from the country seeking convivial
company and a ‘good, plain dinner’. Notable members were the Duke of
Devonshire, the Duke of Wellington, the Marquess of Lansdowne, Beau Brummell,
William Wilberforce and Charles James Fox.
Watier’s
Also known as the ‘Great-go’ and
called The Dandy Club by Byron, Watier’s was established in 1807 at 81,
Piccadilly, on the opposite corner from Bolton Street. It was chiefly a
gambling club where, in the words of John Timbs, “…princes and nobles lost or gained fortunes between
themselves; and by all accounts ‘Macao’ seems to have been a far more effective
instrument in the losing of fortunes than either ‘Whist’ or ‘Loo’.”
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Captain Gronow had this to say about
the club’s birth:
‘Upon one
occasion, some gentlemen of both White's and Brookes' had the honour to dine with the Prince
Regent, and during the conversation, the Prince inquired what sort of dinners
they got at their clubs; upon which. Sir Thomas Stepney, one of the guests,
observed that their dinners were always the same, “the eternal joints, or
beefsteaks, the boiled fowl with oyster sauce, and an apple tart—this is what
we have, sir, at our clubs, and very monotonous fare it is.” The Prince,
without further remark, rang the bell for his cook, Wattier, and, in the
presence of those who dined at the Royal table, asked him whether he would take
a house and organize a dinner club. Wattier assented, and named Madison, the
Prince's page, manager, and Labourie, the cook, from the Royal kitchen. The
club flourished only a few years, owing to the high play that was carried on
there. The Duke of York patronized it, and was a member. I was a member in
1816, and frequently saw his Royal Highness there. The dinners were exquisite;
the best Parisian cooks could not beat Labourie. The favourite game played there was Macao.’
The house at 81, Piccadilly had
originally been established for ‘harmonic meetings’ by Messrs. Maddocks and
Calvert, along with Lord Headford, according to Mr. Thomas Raikes, himself a
dandy and member of the club.
‘Watier's Club
had a very short duration in London [It met its demise in 1819.] but it was
a feature in
the society of that day, which will long be remembered as a scene of
dissipation and high play, attended with the most fatal and ruinous
consequences.’ Thomas Raikes goes on to say that after Watier took over, the dinners
became so popular and talked about, all the young men of fashion were clamouring to become members. ‘The
catches and glees were then superseded by cards and dice; the most luxurious
dinners were furnished at any price, as the deep play at night rendered all
charges a matter of indifference. Macao was the constant game, and thousands
passed from one to another with as much facility as marbles.’
All the most influential men of the
day flocked to the new club. The Prince Regent had insisted on Beau Brummell
being President of the club, and as with all things to do with the Carlton
House set, the Beau held sway over members’ manners, dress and, indeed, even
‘those magnificent snuffboxes’:
‘Brummell was
the supreme dictator, “their club’s perpetual president,” laying down the law
in dress, in manners, and in those magnificent snuff-boxes for which there was
a rage; he fomented the excesses, ridiculed the scruples, patronised the novices, and exercised
paramount dominion over all. He had, as I have before said, great success at
Macao, winning in two or three years a large sum, which went no one knew how,
for he never lost back more than a fourth of it before he levanted to Calais.
During the height of his prosperity, I remember him coming in one night after
the opera to Watier’s, and finding the
Macao table
full, one place at which was occupied by Tom Sheridan, who was never in the
habits of play, but having dined freely had dropped into the Club, and was
trying to catch the smiles of Fortune by risking a few pounds which he could
ill afford to lose. Brummell proposed to him to give up his place and go shares
in his deal; and adding to the 10l. in counters which Tom had before him 200l.
for himself, took the cards. He dealt with his usual success, and in less than
ten minutes won 1500l. He then stopped, made a fair division, and giving 750l.
to Sheridan, said to him, “There, Tom, go home and give your wife and brats
a supper, and
never play again.”’
Thus Watier’s became renowned for
superb food and very deep play, but despite the ‘honourable feeling which prevailed among the members’ and the ‘good breeding and good
humour’, in the words of Mr. Raikes, an ill-omen signalled the end when founder John Maddocks cut his throat with a razor at his
Stratton Street home.
‘The club did
not endure for twelve years altogether; the pace was too quick to last: it died
a natural death in 1819, from the paralysed state of its members; the house was then taken by a set
of blacklegs, who instituted a common bank for gambling. To form an idea of the
ruin produced by this short-lived establishment among men whom I have so
intimately known, a cursory glance to the past suggests the following
melancholy list, which only forms a part of its deplorable results.’ He continued, ‘None of the dead reached the average age of
man, and those who have survived may always look back to the life at Watier's
as the source of their embarrassments.’
Brummell himself could be deemed one
of these, since he lost a fortune at Watier’s and was forced to spend the rest
of his life on the Continent.
The Cocoa Tree
From 1757 to some time between 1787
and 1793, Number 46, Piccadilly was the site of the Cocoa Tree chocolate house.
According to a drawing by Coney, it was a late seventeenth century house
with a four-storeyed façade. On the ground floor was a shop front, while each
upper storey had a narrow recess on the western side and three tall, sashed
windows. The club then removed to Number 64 until 1799.
The Cocoa Tree Chocolate
House was first referred to in manuscripts belonging to Earl Cowper in 1698 –
‘The Cocoa Tree in the Pell Mell’. In the early years of the eighteenth
century, it appears to have become a Tory stronghold and it was probably around
the start of George III’s reign that it changed to a proprietary club as had
White’s. By 1780, however, Horace Walpole wrote, ‘Within this week there has been a cast at hazard at the Cocoa Tree,
the difference of which amounted to an hundred and fourscore thousand pounds’, suggesting
that in the intervening years the club had become a popular venue for high
stakes gambling.
In 1799, after a succession of
proprietors, the latest, William Newton, moved to 64, St. James’s Street, where
it seems likely the Cocoa Tree merged with a club which had been formed there
in 1781. Soon notable for the extravagance of its entertainments and its
gambling, it consisted ‘of young men who belong to Government’. Writing to the Earl of
Carlisle in 1782, James Hare remarked on the feeling at Brooks’:
‘A young Club at Weltje’s begins to alarm us, as they increase in
numbers, live well, and are difficult in their choice of members; it is almost
entirely a Ministerial Club as Brookes’s is a Minority.’
A drawing of the street by Tallis
shows the property with a garret above three main storeys and an iron balcony railing reaching around the
first floor. The ground floor lacked symmetry, a modest, square-topped entrance
door being set between a wide, similarly shaped passage entrance on one side (leading
to Blue Ball Yard) and a sash window with three lights on the other. A focal point
in one of the main rooms was a large golden, ornamental tree.
Patronized by the Prince Regent,
Lord Byron and Sheridan, the nineteenth century saw political affiliations
lessen at the Cocoa Tree and its main notoriety seemed to be heavy drinking.
William Newton continued as proprietor until 1810; in 1817 R. Holland took
over, to be followed by members of the Raggett family from 1818 to 1835. After
this date, much of the club’s history seems to have been lost, although a
gunsmith’s shop occupied a large part of the ground floor during the twentieth
century and the house was badly damaged by fire in 1926. The club closed in
1932.
The Jockey
Club
There were two inns called
the Star and Garter on Pall Mall in the 1750s. One, dating from at least 1740,
stood on the site of Number 44, on the northern side. The other and far better
known inn stood on the southern side and was probably originally two houses. A
drawing by Coney shows a ‘four-storeyed building of early eighteenth century
character’. Part of the site was later occupied by the Carlton Club.
The origins of the Jockey
Club have been lost in the mists of time. It is generally acknowledged, including
by the club itself from its records, that it began around 1750 or 1751, since
in John Pond’s Sporting Kalendar of
1751-2 there was a notice, quoted in Robert Black’s The Jockey Club And Its Founders viz.:
In that publication
it is announced that there will be run for, at Newmarket, on Wednesday, April
1, 1752, ‘A Contribution Free Plate, by horses the property of the noblemen and
gentlemen belonging to the Jockey Club, at the Star and Garter in Pall Mall.’
Nevertheless, some
authorities deem it conceivable that the club’s conception was much earlier. In
a pamphlet of 1709, by Edward Ward (author of The London Spy), entitled The
History of the London Clubs, there is mention of a Yorkshire Club and
therein are described various persons – ‘Needle
Pointed Inn-Keepers, Rich and Froth Victuallers, honest Horse Coursers, and
pious Yorkshire Attorneys, the rest good harmless Master Hostlers’ – who
met ‘together in the Room next the Market
[Smithfield], Horse Flesh for certain is
the first Subject that is started in the Company…’
Rebecca Cassidy, editor of The Cambridge Companion to Horeseracing states that: ‘Historians have long identified the
formation of the Jockey Club as occurring either 1750 or 1751, and the earliest
notice appears to be a notice in Pond’s Sporting Kalendar…’ Nevertheless,
she goes on to claim: ‘In fact, the
Jockey Club was formed a generation earlier in the 1720s…’
No matter which date is the
correct one, the Jockey Club undoubtedly met at the Star and Garter, which
Robert Black claims was ‘the favourite meeting-house of many clubs, was celebrated for its
choice cookery and wines, was notorious for its expensiveness, and was, some
few years after the foundation of the Jockey Club, the scene of the tragic
quarrel in which Mr. Chaworth was killed by Lord Byron’. Of this I must research
further! The Star and Garter was not the only meeting-place of the club. On
occasion the members met at the Thatched House, the Clarendon or even in each
other’s houses. Robert Black reports, ‘…and
for some years (even after Messrs. Weatherby removed to Old Burlington Street,
where the headquarters of the Club eventually became fixed) at what was known
as ‘The Corner’ (Hyde Park), with a coffee-room and a cook, it is said,
provided by the obliging Mr. Richard Tattersall.’
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| Tattersall's, 1842 |
The word jockey
refers to the owners rather than riders of racehorses, and indeed, the Jockey Club
has always been a body for the wealthy and titled to enjoy society at its upper
levels. Perhaps its inauguration stemmed from the court of a very Merry Monarch
and his love of both horse racing and lavish entertainment – Charles II. It is
no coincidence that the Jockey Club took up its headquarters at Newmarket.
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| Hyperion statue outside The Jockey Club Rooms, Newmarket by Alarnsen |
It would seem that the club was
active in ‘The Home of Racing’ by 1753. In the previous year, a plot of land
was leased by the Jockey Club on the High Street in Newmarket – very likely
because they wanted a base near to the racecourse – and a Coffee House was
built as a private meeting-place for members. It is a reasonable assumption
that it was run in a similar manner to White’s, the Cocoa Tree and other London
chocolate and coffee houses. According to Amanda Murray, in her book All The Kings’ Horses, while the Coffee Room was being built,
meetings were held at the Red Lion Inn. The New
Rooms were added about 1771-2 and thus the club became established. When
the lease expired, the club purchased the freehold, and the original Coffee
Room, added to and altered over the years, became known as The Jockey Club Rooms. The elegant red-brick building remains the
Newmarket headquarters of the Jockey Club to this day.
Famous members from those early
times were the Dukes of Cumberland, Devonshire and Marlborough; Lords
Barrymore, Bolingbroke, Carlisle, Clermont, Grosvenor, Molyneux, Orford and
Rockingham; Sirs, Thomas Charles Bunbury, Thomas Gascoigne and Henry Grey, to
name but a few. The Prince Regent famously fell out with the Jockey Club when
his horse Escape was deemed to have been held up in a race and His Royal
Highness took the part of his jockey, Chifney. The election of members remained
pretty well unaltered into Victorian times, irrespective of any early system.
Candidates were proposed by members (an unspecified number initially, but later
set at two) and elected by ballot. Nine members made up a quorum and two black
balls excluded the applicant.
Robert Black explains: ‘The rule for the election of members of the
Coffee-room dates from 1767, when a Mr. Brereton made himself unpleasant, and
it was resolved that nobody should be admitted but on the proposal of a member
of the Jockey Club and after a ballot; and when the New Rooms were added there
was a similar rule for admission to them. So that, after a while, membership of
the Jockey Club Rooms by no means meant membership of the Jockey Club.’
© Heather King 2016
All pictures courtesy of Wikimedia Commmons
