The foremost modern literary club in England is of course the Athenæum, which was first established in 1824, under the name of The Society. The latter appellation was, however, changed to the Athenæum at an inaugural dinner given at No. 12 Waterloo Place.
Three years later the committee, having obtained possession of a more convenient site, part of which had been occupied by the recently demolished Carlton House, entrusted Decimus Burton with the task of building a suitable club-house. In the course of its construction Croker insisted that the Scotch sculptor, John Heming, should contribute a frieze designed as a reproduction of that of the Parthenon—an ornamentation at the time characterized as an extravagant novelty. In spite of a good deal of opposition, Croker carried the day, and the construction of an ice-house, which had been advocated by several members, was abandoned in order to afford funds for the classical decoration.
In connection with this was written the epigram:
“I’m John Wilson Croker,
I do as I please:
They ask for an Ice-house,
I’ll give ’em—a Frieze.”
The new Athenæum club-house was formally opened in February 1830, some soirées being given, to which ladies were admitted, though not without protest. The building, which is of some architectural interest, was erected on the west end of the courtyard of old Carlton House, the smoking-room being exactly under what was the Prince Regent’s dining-room.
In the finely-proportioned hall eight pale primrose pillars on broad bronzed bases, copied from the Temple of the Winds at Athens, support the panelled waggon roof, the Pompeian ornamentation being of an original design. The two statues in niches, “Venus Victrix” and “Diana Robing,” were chosen by Sir Thomas Lawrence, who also designed the club seal.
On the right of the hall is the morning-room, redecorated in 1892, when the ceiling was elaborately painted by Sir Edward Poynter. The bust of Milton in this room was bequeathed by Anthony Trollope; in the adjoining writing-room hangs a portrait of Dr. Johnson by Opie, the gift of Mr. Humphry Ward. The drawing-room upstairs, one of the finest rooms in London, has no fewer than eleven windows. But the chief glory of the Athenæum is its library, the view from which embraces the pretty garden, where a rookery once existed. The annual expenditure on books since 1848 has averaged about £450. The Athenæum library is by far the finest and most important club library in the world, all departments of foreign as well as English books being represented by rare and complete examples. Moreover, there is on its shelves one of the best collections of reference books in England, and the bookcases are stored with valuable volumes—rare tomes dealing with history, topography, and archæology, as well as sumptuously-bound books on art. Of these a number were obtained under a legacy of the Rev. Charles Turner, and others were left by the late Mr. Felix Slade. The collection of English pamphlets is also singularly complete, and includes 21 volumes collected together by Sir James Mackintosh, 43 by Dr. Nasmith the antiquary, 139 volumes by Morton Pitt, 23 volumes by Gibbon on historical and financial subjects, 23 volumes devoted to foreign and colonial affairs, and 52 volumes of smaller publications relating to America. Amongst literary matter of a lighter description preserved in this library are 26 portfolios containing newspapers and caricatures collected during the siege of Paris and the Commune. In a case is preserved a large number of proof engravings, most of them after portraits of members. These were executed by George Richmond, R.A., who presented the collection. An interesting relic of Thackeray is the original manuscript of “The Orphan of Pimlico,” in the great novelist’s beautiful handwriting.