https://theathenaeum.co.uk/the-club/our-history/
Early history
The Club
has a long history of intellectual debate and social engagement. It was founded
in 1824 at the instigation of John Wilson Croker [pictured right],
indefatigable Secretary of the Admiralty, as "a Club for literary and
scientific men and followers of the fine arts".
From the
very beginning its membership (all men in those days) brought together fellows
of the learned societies of the day, politicians, clergy (from Archbishops to
parish priests) and others, many of whom (whatever their own profession) were
fascinated by the scientific and technological discoveries of their day and
wished to see how this new knowledge could be used for the benefit and
improvement of society.
The
Club’s first Secretary was a young Michael Faraday, then researching
electromagnetism and electrochemistry and soon to publish the 'Law of
Induction' named after him. The first Club Chairman was Sir Humphry Davy, son
of a Cornish woodcarver who had risen to become one of the leading lights of
chemical research and is remembered today especially for his 'Davy lamp'.
John
Wilson Croker, nevertheless, remained influential in the development of the
Club for the rest of his life, balancing his interests in 'his' Club with his
administrative and literary work, where his firm sense of structure in this
case led him to compare the modern Romantic poets very unfavourably with the
masters of form in 18th century verse.
The
Club’s first Committee meeting took place on 16 February 1824 in the rooms of
the Royal Society. The next nine meetings were held in the home of Joseph
Jekyll at 22 New Street, Spring Gardens. In May 1824, the Club moved into
rented premises at 12 Waterloo Place. Six years later, it opened its new
Clubhouse just along Waterloo Place on Pall Mall.
At the
first meeting of the Club, on 16 February 1824, the membership limit was set at
400. This was steadily increased and, by December 1824, was set at 1,000. But
the cost of the magnificent premises had resulted in a deficit of some £20,000
and 200 supernumerary members were elected in 1830 to restore the finances. By
1838, the Club was again in straitened circumstances after undertaking
expensive remedial action because of the damage caused by the gas lighting.
Athenaeum Club timeline
The
Athenaeum Club was founded in 1824 by John Wilson Croker MP, First Secretary to
the Admiralty, a leading figure in literary circles and a moving spirit at the
Union Club. The Club was intended to serve as a meeting place for artists,
writers, and scientists, along with cabinet ministers, bishops, and judges,
where relationships could be fostered and ideas exchanged beyond the boundaries
of the learned societies and other national and local organisations of the day,
to which many members also belonged.
1823 12
March: From John Wilson Croker, First Secretary to the Admiralty, to Sir
Humphry Davy, President of the Royal Society: I will take this opportunity of
repeating the proposition I have before made to you about a Club for literary
and scientific men, and followers of the fine arts.
1824 16
February: A planning committee meets in the apartments of the Royal Society,
Somerset House, on what was truly the birthday of the Club, which was as yet
unnamed.
1824 31
May: A temporary clubhouse at 12 Waterloo Place is opened to members.
1824 22
June: The first 506 members are invited to present copies of their published
works for the purpose of forming a Library for the use of the Club.
1825
January: By now the Club already boasts 990 ‘original’ members.
1830
February: The Club moves to Decimus Burton’s Grecian clubhouse on the corner of
Pall Mall and Waterloo Place (where is remains today), and it opens to great
acclaim. The Committee may invite nine particularly eminent ‘Rule II’ members
to join each year to bypass a long waiting list.
1831:
The Club Archive shows that a ‘Joint with Bread & Table Beer’ can be
obtained for one shilling (5p), and ‘Two Eggs’ for sixpence (2½p).
1838
June: The Club’s Committee authorises an expansion of the number of Club
members to help finance running costs and improvements. The extra members
(dubbed the ‘Forty Thieves’) include Charles Darwin and the young Charles
Dickens.
1840s:
The popularity of the Club means that the waiting list for membership continues
to grow, peaking at 1,500 members held in a 16-year queue.
1857 10
August: The Club’s founder, John Wilson Croker, dies, aged 76, having seen his
Club become one of the landmarks of London.
Members
would have baulked at the idea of advertising for new recruits. But they didn’t
need to, as it was perceived as an honour to be nominated for membership.
Whilst many of the leading figures of literature, science, and politics in the
later nineteenth century might be seen walking into the Club, others who played
important but quieter roles on the national and global stage were eager to join
and to exchange views with the opinion-formers of the day.
1863:
The Club Archive shows members engaged in activities outside the range of the
work for which they are best remembered. Scientist Thomas Huxley, for example,
joined other members of the X-Club campaign to “professionalise” science for
Bishop Colenso of Natal to be granted honorary membership of the Club. Most
Anglican bishops are Club members and most heartily disapprove.
1866 24
July: The windows of the Morning Room on Pall Mall are smashed by the mob after
the failure of one of the Reform Bills.
1869-80:
Records show that of the 62 members of the Metaphysical Society (a famous
debating society founded in 1869), 44 are Club members.
1873
May: John Stuart Mill, a regular member (and the son of original member James
Mill) who joined before he was prominent as a leading thinker of the late
Victorian age, dies. This sparks a row in the Club over his radical views on
birth control.
1887:
Philosopher and proponent of ‘social Darwinism’ Herbert Spencer protests
against ‘strangers’ being permitted to join private dinners in the Club; in the
same year a new Executive Committee chaired by Sir Frederick Abel is
established to streamline the management of the Club.
1891-2:
As tastes change and older buildings need a face-lift, Sir Edwin Poynter and
Sir Lawrence Alma Tadema are invited to remodel the interior decoration of the
Club.
1893 11
March: The iconic sketch Ballot Day 1892, in which many Club members of the day
can be identified discussing and casting their ballot, is drawn by J. Walter
Wilson and published in ever-popular Illustrated London News.
1899:
Redesign does not always meet with approval: Thomas Calcutt’s undistinguished
extra storey added to the Clubhouse is mocked as a ‘birdcage’.
As the
Club moved into the 20th century it started to be more aware of its own history
and to recognise that it needed to move with the times to satisfy the demands
of a membership which had emerged from the Victorian era and was experiencing
the new reality of life after the Great War, mass production, mass
communication, and the emergence of new generations of writers, scientists, and
thinkers.
1902 4
July: The Club is delighted to discover that nine of its members are included
amongst the 12 initial members of King Edward VII’s new Order of Merit. Their
achievement is celebrated at the Club’s first banquet, where Prime Minister and
Club Member Arthur Balfour proposes their health.
1904:
Club Members Lord Rayleigh (Physics) and Sir William Ramsay (Chemistry) are
each awarded a Nobel prize, the first people from the United Kingdom to gain
such an honour, and the first of over 50 Club awardees over the years.
c1912:
Arthur Benson acts as an interpreter for Thomas Hardy and Henry James, both of
whom are hard of hearing.
1914 1
November: Two members of the Club’s staff, Lance Corporal Alfred Brown, junior
clerk, and Private George Weekes, sculleryman, are killed in action at
Messines.
1914 19
November: Much-loved British military commander Earl ‘Bobs’ Roberts is buried
at St Paul’s Cathedral, at the age of 82.
1916-17:
The Revd. Carew Hervey St John Milmay exchanges 42 letters with the club’s
Executive Committee regarding his own complaints and those made against him.
1924 16
February: The Club holds its ‘Foundation Day’ centenary dinner.
1924
March: Newly-elected Ramsay MacDonald, the first Labour Prime Minister,
unwittingly breaks the complex rules on ‘strangers’ in the clubhouse, and is
required to cut short his visit to the clubhouse.
1926 22
November: The Club launches a new initiative with the first ‘Talk Dinner’, on
‘Coal’.
1940 14
October: The clubhouse is ‘rocked’ when Carlton Club takes a direct hit from a
German bomb.
1940-5:
Exiled foreign leaders and their ministers become honorary members. Prominent
scientists such as Sir Henry Tizard, Lord Blackett and others meet in clubhouse
to discuss the emerging technology of radar, etc.
1974:
Club Chairman Sir Percy Faulkner, Controller of Her Majesty’s Stationery Office
and Queen’s Printer of Acts of Parliament, declares the Athenaeum to be more
than just another London club.
1985:
Members include four Presidents of the Royal Society, two of the Society of
Antiquaries and six of the British Academy.
The 21st
century sees further changes in the Club, as its membership becomes more
diverse. But it is still based at Decimus Burton’s clubhouse on the corner of
Pall Mall and Waterloo Place in London, and still fosters the same style of
intellectual debate and exploration that its early members established.
2001
March: After three debates over 17 years, women members are admitted to the
Club: the ‘First Ladies’.
2018:
Jane Barker becomes first woman to be elected Club Chairman. The present full
complement of members is 2,000.
2024 16
February: Bicentenary of the Athenaeum Club.
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