The Clermont Set was an exclusive group of rich British gamblers who met at the Clermont Club, originally at 44 Berkeley Square, in London's fashionable Mayfair district. It closed in March 2018, re-opened in early 2022, and then temporarily closed again in August 2022.
The house at 44 Berkeley Square was built in 1740 (to the design of the architect William Kent) for Lady Isabella "Bell" Finch (1700–1771) who was a Lady of the Bedchamber to Princess Amelia. It is famed for its theatrical staircase and large grand saloon "one of the finest rooms of its scale and period in London", [1] [2] the saloon design was based on the famous Double Cube Room at Wilton House in Wiltshire. William Kent was also a close associate of Lady Bell's niece Countess of Burlington and had also worked on Burlington House. [2] As she never married, the house was inherited by her nephew George Finch-Hatton in 1771. [3]
It was purchased in 1774 by William Henry Fortescue, 1st Earl of Clermont (1722–1806), an Irish peer, and served as his London townhouse. [4] Princess Amelia visited the house frequently, even after Lady Bell Finch's passing since the new owner Lord Clermont was also her friend. [4]
Lord and Lady Clermont entertained lavishly at the house and hosted their friends including, Prince of Wales, Duchess of Devonshire, Charles James Fox, Duke of Portland, Duke of Orléans [4]
It was the first London casino opened by John Aspinall after he received a gaming licence under Britain's new gambling law. Aspinall sold the club in 1972 to Playboy Enterprises, which was forced to sell it in 1982 when it lost its licence. [5]
The club was founded in 1962 by John Aspinall and the original membership included five dukes, five marquesses, almost twenty earls and two cabinet ministers. [6]
Society figures who frequented the club included Peter Sellers, [7] Ian Fleming, David Stirling, Lucian Freud, Lord Lucan, Taki Theodoracopoulos, Lord Derby, Lord Boothby, and the Duke of Devonshire. [6]
Businessman members included James Goldsmith, Tiny Rowland, Gianni Agnelli, Jim Slater, and Kerry Packer.
In 1976 Goldsmith initiated a libel action against the satirical magazine Private Eye , which had alleged that members of the Clermont Set, including Goldsmith, had conspired to shelter Lord Lucan after Lucan was suspected of murdering his family nanny, Sandra Rivett. Goldsmith won a partial victory and eventually reached a settlement with the magazine.[ citation needed ]
Richard John Bingham, 7th Earl of Lucan, commonly known as Lord Lucan, was a British peer and gambler who vanished in 1974 after being suspected of killing his children's nanny and attempting to murder his wife.
Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 7th Earl of Winchilsea PC was an English Tory politician and peer who supported the Hanoverian Succession in 1714. Known as Lord Nottingham until 1729, then as Lord Winchilsea.
Berkeley Square is a garden square in the West End of London. It is one of the best known of the many squares in London, located in Mayfair in the City of Westminster. It was laid out in the mid 18th century by the architect William Kent, and originally extended further south. The garden's very large London Plane trees are among the oldest in central London, planted in 1789.
John Victor Aspinall was an English zoo and casino owner. From upper class beginnings he used gambling to move to the centre of British high society in the 1960s. He was born in Delhi during the British Raj, and was a citizen of the United Kingdom.
The Kit-Cat Club was an early 18th-century English club in London with strong political and literary associations. Members of the club were committed Whigs. They met at the Trumpet Tavern in London and at Water Oakley in the Berkshire countryside.
John George Pearson was an English novelist and an author of biographies, notably of Ian Fleming, of the Sitwells, and of the Kray twins.
William Cavendish, Earl of Burlington, professionally also known by the name Bill Burlington, is a British aristocrat and photographer. A member of the Cavendish family, he is the only son and heir of the 12th Duke of Devonshire.
Devonshire House in Piccadilly, was the London townhouse of the Dukes of Devonshire during the 18th and 19th centuries. Following a fire in 1733 it was rebuilt by William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, in the Palladian style, to designs by William Kent. Completed circa 1740, it stood empty after the First World War and was demolished in 1924.
Lord Frederick William Charles Nicholas Wentworth Hervey was a British aristocrat and political activist. He was the second son of the 6th Marquess of Bristol, but the only child by his second wife, the heiress Lady Juliet Wentworth-Fitzwilliam. As his elder half-brother was unmarried, he was heir presumptive to the Marquessate. At Yale University, he founded the Rockingham Club, a society for aristocracy and royalty. He died in 1998.
Charlotte Elizabeth Cavendish, Marchioness of Hartington, 6th Baroness Clifford was the daughter of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and Lady Dorothy Savile. From 1748 until her death, she was married to William Cavendish, Marquess of Hartington, later the 4th Duke of Devonshire and Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Crown London is a private members club, established by John Aspinall in London since the 1960s. Crown London is currently at 27–28 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London.
Annabel's is a private members' club at 46 Berkeley Square in Mayfair, London.
The Mayfair Set, subtitled Four Stories about the Rise of Business and the Decline of Political Power, is a BBC television documentary series by filmmaker Adam Curtis. It explores the decline of Britain as a world power, the proliferation of asset stripping in the 1970s, and how buccaneer capitalists helped to shape the climate of the Thatcher years, by focusing on Colonel David Stirling, Jim Slater, Sir James Goldsmith and Tiny Rowland—members of London's elite Clermont Club in the 1960s. It won a BAFTA Award for Best Factual Series or Strand in 2000.
William Henry Fortescue, 1st Earl of Clermont, KP, was an Irish peer and politician.
George Finch-Hatton Esq FRS was an English aristocrat and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1772 to 1784.
Lucan is a two-part British television drama, starring Rory Kinnear, Christopher Eccleston and Catherine McCormack, portraying the disappearance in 1974 of the Earl of Lucan, following the murder of his children's nanny. Written by Jeff Pope and directed by Adrian Shergold, it was broadcast in December 2013.
Dorothy Bentinck, Duchess of Portland was Duchess of Portland and the wife of William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, the Prime Minister of Great Britain.
Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington and Countess of Cork was a British noble and court official, as well as a caricaturist and portrait painter. Several of her studies and paintings were made of her daughters. Through her daughter Charlotte, who married the 4th Duke of Devonshire. A collection of 24 of her works of art descended to the Duke of Devonshire and kept at Chatsworth House.
Anne Finch, Countess of Winchilsea and Nottingham, formerly Anne Hatton, was daughter of 1st Viscount Hatton and the second wife of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, and the mother of Daniel Finch, 8th Earl of Winchilsea. Lady Nottingham was appointed the Lady of the Bedchamber to Mary II of England in 1691, and served in that position until the Queen's death in 1694.
Lady Isabella Finch was a Lady of the Bedchamber to the Hanoverian Princess Amelia. She never married and wielded political power.