The Illustrated London News' "In Clubland" pictorials

Vivid images of Victorian Clubland

The Illustrated London News (1842-2003) was the Hello! magazine of the Victorian era - a pioneer when it came to printing sketches and photographs, it offered its readers a vivid pictorial look into worlds they might not otherwise see, at home and abroad. In so doing, it also formed a unique record, and an invaluable visual source for historians. It also happened to be a paper that was keen to chronicle Clubland.

For the festive season, I am sharing with readers some scans from my private collection: in the 1890s, the ILN presented an in-depth “In Clubland” series. Eventually running to five parts, it looked at each of five palatial Pall Mall clubhouses in a row, from the street’s junction with Waterloo Place. Three of them remain as clubhouses today, one of them is now an Institute, and one of them relocated after being bombed in World War II.

Each feature was printed across four pages, heavily illustrated, and recounted the relatively short history of the club to date (each of these clubs was between 58 and 79 years old at the time), as well as including a vast, pull-out imaginary crowd scene, showing the prominent club members of the day in one of the principal club rooms - with a corresponding key.

The author of these pen-portraits was the pioneering lobby correspondent Henry W. Lucy. The artist, also from a parliamentary background, was J. Walter Wilson, who was used to rapidly sketching politicians in Parliament. Each of the features enjoyed considerable co-operation from the clubs covered, with Wilson being admitted to sketch out interiors - indeed, it is likely that the delicate negotiations around this access was the main reason that the interval between bulletins kept increasing. And while Lucy’s text could be superficial, Wilson’s pictures remain seminal images in moulding popular ideas of what clubs and club members look like.

I) Carlton Club - 24 May 1890

The first in the series focused on the then-governing Conservative Party’s official club, the Carlton Club. Much of the history of the surrounding area was drawn from Louis Fagan’s then-recent (1887) history of the Reform Club. The Club’s layout and committee structure is described, as well as its ethos: “The Carlton differs from the Reform inasmuch as it is not a club at which a member may entertain a friend. The principle of its foundation is the absolute exclusiveness of a club.” But there was also a sense of things happening: “The Artist has been fortunate in finding the Premier [the 3rd Marquess Salisbury] in the club on the day of his visit.” Yet the feature ended on a maudlin note: “It is doubtful whether the Carlton Club is so potent a political influence as it used to be twenty, or even a dozen, years ago.”

For the tableau, Tory politicians were shown in the first-floor Smoking Room (formerly the Library) of the Carlton Club’s then-building. The ILN donated the original artwork to the Club, and it can still be seen hanging in a first-floor service corridor of the Carlton on St. James’s Street today.

II) Reform Club - 29 November 1890

The second in the series came six months later, and focused on the opposition Liberal Party’s neighbouring Pall Mall club, the Reform. Again drawing on Fagan’s 1887 history, Lucy looked at the construction of the historic club, with its innovative architecture by Charles Barry, its structure and its layout. Indeed, compared to the Carlton, politics seemed very much of secondary concern to Lucy, other than when describing some key personalities - and most of them already dead, like John Bright. This reflected the way that the Home Rule split of 1886 had sharply divided the membership of the Reform Club; and the way its members papered over their considerable political differences was to downplay their founding principles, and to focus on creature comforts. Lucy’s narrative closely reflected this.

For the tableau, Liberal politicians were shown in the ground-floor Morning Room of the Reform Club, which remains today much as is seen in the picture. The ILN donated the original artwork to the Club, and it remains in the Reform’s archive.

III) Athenæum - 11 March 1893

There was then a pause of over two years, before Lucy successfully talked his way into the Athenæum, for the third instalment in the series. Relating the story of the foundation of the Club by John Wilson Croker, and the organising role of its first Secretary Michael Faraday, Lucy then takes the reader on a virtual tour of the building, before finishing with a roll-call of the names of well-known members - quite literally, in the case of the last page, which reproduces signatures from the Candidates’ Book. The article is also notable as an early instance in print of the story of Dickens and Thackeray ending their feud, at the foot of the staircase - a tale subsequently retold and embellished and relocated in numerous other sources.

For the tableau, Athenians were shown electing members on “Ballot Day”, wielding white and black balls in the first-floor Drawing Room, the layout and furniture of which remains much the same today. The ILN donated the original artwork to the Club, and it can still be seen hanging in a second-floor hallway of the Club’s annexe.

IV) United Service Club - 24 February 1894

The fourth instalment of the series appeared nearly a year later, covering the United Service Club, the premier club for senior army and navy officers (although at the time of publication, it had just admitted junior officers for the first time - however, they remained a small minority). The account begins with a lament for the fading influence of clubs, while recognising that “the Senior” (as it was known) remained one of the more influential ones of late-Victorian Britain: “For all its age, ‘the Senior’ is one of the best clubs in the ‘Rue des Cercles,’ and one of the cheapest.” Most of the article is given over to describing its foundation by Lord Lynedoch in 1815. Lucy conceded that the Club’s library was patchy and specialised, but “The ‘Senior’ is great in pictures,” being lined with portraits of generals and admirals.

For the tableau, senior army and navy officers were shown in the first-floor Library - a grand room, which conspicuously prioritised portraits over bookcases. The ILN presumably donated the original artwork to the Club, but its present whereabouts is unknown.

V) Travellers Club - 11 June 1898

The final entry in the series, after a gap of over four years, was almost an afterthought. Gone was the capacious fold-out scene, to be replaced by a standard double-spread, of the kind which the ILN routinely printed. Lucy’s text was somewhat more sparse and by-the-numbers as well, setting out the foundation of the Club, and guiding the visitor through its layout. While Wilson’s pictures remained a delight, this was a sorry note on which to end the series. Presumably Lucy and Wilson had encountered some obstructiveness from the remaining clubs of Pall Mall and St. James’s, and there was little scope to carry on this feature.

For the tableau, members were shown attending a General Meeting in the ground-floor Smoking Room of the Club. The ILN presumably donated the original artwork to the Club, but its present whereabouts is unknown.

Conclusion

The ILN’s ‘In Clubland’ series remains fascinating. Admittedly, the bold ambition for a regular series looking inside each of the clubs soon tailed off. And admittedly, Lucy’s text could be superficial - the features are almost sequential in their interest, with the first one on the Carlton being filled with shrewd character observations, and the last on the Travellers being sparse and dull.

But the series offered a vivid visual glimpse of the clubs, not limited to rooms and decor. At a time when photographers were not admitted to clubhouses (unless they were architectural photographers capturing empty rooms), Wilson’s paintings showed how members used their clubs. And while the central tableaux were certainly embellished in corralling so many notable figures into one scene at a time, the embedded illustrations throughout the articles, showing members lounging and dining and striding and socialising, captures something of club life in an evocative manner. Little wonder then, that these ILN images have been some of the most heavily-reproduced images of London Clubland over the last century. They have been key in moulding our idea of the norms of Clubland.

---

The above illustrations are all drawn from the author’s own collection, with the exception of the Carlton Club tableau, which is taken from the scan on the Club’s own website.

---

You can view the full and varied backlog of Clubland Substack articles, by clicking on the index below.