Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
caryatids. In 1769, the house was divided into three, and the artist, Thomas
Gainsborough, who was at the height of his fame, lived in no. 80, the western portion,
until his death in 1788. Next door, at no. 81, a Scottish quack doctor, James Graham,
ran his Temple of Health and Hymen, where couples having trouble conceiving could
try their luck in the “grand celestial bed” for £50 a night (a fortune in those days).
79 Pall Mall
Charles II housed
Nell Gwynne
at 79 Pall Mall, and even gave her the freehold, so
that the two of them could chat over the garden wall, which once backed onto the
grounds of St James's Palace. It was from one of the windows overlooking the garden
that Nell is alleged to have dangled her 6-year-old, threatening to drop him if
Charles didn't acknowledge paternity and give the boy a title, at which Charles yelled
out “Save the Earl of Burford!”; another, more tabloid-style version of the story
alleges that Charles was persuaded only after overhearing Nell saying “Come here,
you little bastard”, then excusing herself on the grounds that she had no other name
by which to call him.
2
Marlborough House
Pall Mall • Visits by guided tour only, of groups of 15 or more •
T
020 7747 6500,
W
thecommonwealth.org •
!
Green Park
Marlborough House
itself is hidden from Marlborough Road by a high, brick wall, and
only partly visible from The Mall. Queen Anne sacrificed half her garden in granting
this land to her lover, Sarah Jennings, Duchess of Marlborough, in 1709. The duchess,
in turn, told Wren to design her a “strong, plain and convenient” palace, only to sack
him later and finish the plans off herself. The highlight of the interior is the
Blenheim
Saloon
, with its frescoes depicting the first duke's eponymous victory, along with
ceiling paintings by Gentileschi transferred from the Queen's House in Greenwich. The
royals took over the building in 1817, though the last one to live here was Queen
Mary, wife of George V. Since 1965, the palace has been the headquarters of the
Commonwealth Secretariat, and can only be visited on a guided tour.
THE GENTLEMEN'S CLUBS
The
gentlemen's clubs
of Pall Mall and St James's Street remain the final bastions of the male
chauvinism and public-school snobbery for which England is famous. Their origins lie in the
coffee- and chocolate-houses of the eighteenth century, though the majority were founded in
the post-Napoleonic peace of the early nineteenth century by those who yearned for the life
of the of
cers' mess; drinking, whoring and gambling were the major features of early club life.
White's
- the oldest of the lot, and with a list of members that still includes numerous royals
(Prince Charles held his [first] stag party here), prime ministers and admirals - used to be the
uno
cial Tory party headquarters, renowned for its high gambling stakes, while, opposite, was
the Whigs' favourite club,
Brooks's
. Bets were wagered over the most trivial of things to relieve
the boredom - “a thousand meadows and cornfields were staked at every throw” - and in
1755 one MP, Sir John Bland, shot himself after losing £32,000 in one night.
In their day, the clubs were also the battleground of sartorial elegance, particularly
Boodle's
, in whose bay window the dandy-in-chief Beau Brummell set the fashion trends
for the London upper class and provided endless fuel for gossip. It was said that Brummell's
greatest achievement in life was his starched neckcloth, and that the Prince Regent himself
wept openly when Brummell criticized the line of his cravat. More serious political disputes
were played out in clubland, too. The
Reform Club
on Pall Mall, from which Phileas Fogg set
off in Jules Verne's
Around the World in Eighty Days
, was the gathering place of the liberals
behind the 1832 Reform Act, and remains one of the more “progressive” - it was one of the
first to admit women as members in 1981. The Tories, led by Wellington, countered by
starting up the
Carlton Club
for those opposed to the Act - bombed by the IRA in 1990,
it's still the leading Conservative club, and only admitted women as full members in 2008
(Mrs Thatcher was made an honorary member).
