Brooks's

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The interior of John Adam's barrel-vaulted "Great Subscription Room" at Brooks's, 1808 print
The interior of John Adam's barrel-vaulted "Great Subscription Room" at Brooks's, 1808 print

Brooks's is a London gentlemen's club, founded in 1764 by 27 men including four dukes, At an early date, it was the meeting place for Whigs of the highest social order, and it remains one of the most exclusive London Clubs.

Their original premises in Pall Mall were "farmed" or managed by the famous Almack (William Macall, who reversed the syllables of his unfashionably Scottish name) who also set up the iconic Almack's Assembly Rooms in nearby Duke Street. The club is named after Almack's successor Brooks, who only survived its rebuilding by three years. The current building on the west side of St. James's Street was designed by Henry Holland and opened in 1778. It faces Boodle's across the street, and the Tory club of White's is just up the road. A few apolitical and affable gentlemen managed to belong to both.

Its primary purpose was originally to provide a home away from home for the gentleman of the time, who was normally not at all domestic. At Brooks's, he could meet his friends (and avoid his and others' ladies) at any time of the day or night. The club provided substantial but ordinary meals, to the point that complaints about the everlasting sameness led to the founding of Watier's in 1806.

The gaming rooms used to be one of the main attractions. At several tables in one, gentlemen would stake fortunes on whist and hazard. Gambling all night was common; all day and all night, not unheard of. When the stakes far exceeded any ordinary expenses, all the club accounts were commonly deducted from winnings, so that no bills were rendered to members. Numerous eccentric bets were and are made in the Brooks's betting book. One extraordinary entry is "Ld. Cholmondeley has given two guineas to Ld. Derby, to receive 500gs whenever his lordship f**** a woman in a balloon one thousand yards from the earth". Members' gaming, such as at backgammon, continues today, but somewhat less extravagently.

In the middle 1970s the penurious St James's Club amalgamated with Brooks's to add a less traditionally Whig (not to say actively rakish) aspect to its membership.

[edit] Notable members

[edit] References

  • Christopher Hibbert; London, the Biography of a City; 1969; William Morrow, NY
  • Stella Margetson; Regency London; 1971; Prawger Publishers, Inc. NY
  • Ellen Moers; The Dandy: Brummell to Beerbohm; 1960; The Viking Press, Inc., NY
  • Philip Ziegler & Desmond Seward; Brooks's: A Social History, 1991.
  • Vic Gatrell, City of Laughter, Atlantic Books, 2006.
  • Robert Phipps Dod; Parliamentary Companion (various editions)
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