Devonshire Club

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The Devonshire Club was established in 1874 at 50 St James's Street. The major Liberal club of the day was the Reform Club, but in the wake of the 1868 Reform Act's extension of the franchise, the waiting list for membership from the larger electorate grew to such an extent that a new club was formed to accommodate these new Liberal voters. The clubhouse was on the western side of St James's Street. The original intention was to call it the 'Junior Reform Club', along the model of the Junior Carlton Club, but complaints from the Reform Club's members led it to being named the Devonshire, in honour of its first chairman, the Duke of Devonshire, who was from a long line of Liberals.

The Club did well in its first decade, but found itself in an awkward position from the 1880s upon the establishment of the National Liberal Club. With a further extension of the franchise in the 1880s, the National Liberal was aimed at these new electors, and the Devonshire came to possess neither the prestige of the Reform nor the broader appeal of the National Liberal. It soon lost its political flavour.

After a great deal of financial trouble in the 1970s (mirrored in many other clubs of the time, including the Reform, the Carlton, Junior Carlton, the Army and Navy, and the United Services Club), it finally closed in 1976, with its membership merging with the East India Club.