Travellers Club - Premises

Premises

The club's original premises were at 12 Waterloo Place.

It moved to 49 Pall Mall in 1821 (a building which had once been occupied by Brooks's). However, it quickly outgrew this building and in 1826 the members decided to spend £25,000 on the construction of a purpose built club house on the present site at 106 Pall Mall, backing onto the gardens of Carlton House.

The architect was Sir Charles Barry who was later to be the architect for the Houses of Parliament, and the Travellers Club building proved to be one of his masterpieces. It takes the form of a Renaissance palace which is said to have been inspired by Raphael's Palazzo Pandolfini in Florence. It was completed in 1832, with the tower (which had been in Barry's original design) added in 1842.

The club building includes a smoking room (a large common room which looks over Carlton Gardens), the cocktail bar and adjacent Bramall room (which gives access to Carlton Gardens), the Outer Morning Room (a large drawing room overlooking Pall Mall, and connecting to an Inner Morning Room), and the dining room (known as the Coffee Room). The Times on 10 January 2004 noted "the wonderful dining, heavy on fish and game (partridges to potted shrimps) with echoes of school food (bread pudding) and a superb wine cellar".

The magnificent library is decorated with a recreation of the Bassae Frieze which are marbles of the 5th century Greek temple of Apollo Epicurius at Bassae. The originals of this frieze were discovered by the architect Charles Robert Cockerell, who was on the first Committee of the Club in 1819, and they are now in the British Museum. The recreation was carried out by John Henning and his son. The library has a large and important collection of books, from the antiquarian to the modern, mainly on travel and international subjects. The Travellers Club was the original home of the London Library.

There are a number of bedrooms at the club for out-of-town members.

The dress code is formal. Gentlemen are required to wear a jacket and tie; denim, sports shoes and other casual attire are not permitted.

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