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 Front of the clubhouse in 2023 | |
| Founded | 1868 |
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| Type | Gentlemen's club |
| Location |
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| Website | savileclub.co.uk |
The Savile Club is a traditional gentlemen's club in London that was founded in 1868. Located in fashionable and historically significant Mayfair, its membership, past and present, includes many prominent names.
Initially calling itself the New Club, it grew rapidly, outgrowing its first-floor rooms overlooking Trafalgar Square at 9 Spring Gardens and moving to the second floor. It then moved to 15 Savile Row in 1871, where it changed its name to the Savile Club, before lack of space forced the club to move again in 1882, this time to 107 Piccadilly, a bow-windowed building owned by Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery. With its views over Green Park, it was described by the members as the "ideal clubhouse". However, after 50 years' residence, demolition of the building next door to create the Park Lane Hotel caused the old clubhouse such structural problems that, in 1927, the club moved to its present home at 69 Brook Street in Mayfair, a house built with leases granted by the Duke of Westminster in the mid-1720s. In 1850, Edward Digby, 2nd Earl Digby commissioned Thomas Cundy II to add the Doric porch to No 69, satisfying a Victorian desire for greater privacy as well as warmth. This had previously been occupied by the Dowager Duchess of Cleveland from 1866 to 1883 and was later the former home of "Loulou" Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt, a Liberal Party cabinet minister, and his wife Mary Ethel Harcourt, Viscountess Harcourt. The building, a combination of 69 and 71 Brook Street, owes its extravagant Dix-huitième interior to Walter Hayes Burns, the father of Lady Harcourt and the brother-in-law of financier J. P. Morgan, who commissioned William Bouwens van der Boijen of Paris to adapt it for his wife Mary Lyman Morgan to entertain in a suitable style at home. It thus includes an elegant hall, a grand staircase and a lavish Louis XV-style ballroom. Following the marriage of her youngest daughter in 1926, Lady Harcourt decided to dispose of the lease of Brook Street, which she did 12 months later to the Savile Club. [1]
Savile Club members are known as Savilians and the Club's motto of Sodalitas Convivium implies convivial companionship. The traditional mainstays of the Savile are food and drink, good conversation, playing bridge and poker, and Savile Snooker. This is a 19th-century version of the game, whose rules were first written down in the mid-20th century by Stephen Potter. It is a form of volunteer snooker, with some unusual features (the brown ball is spotted behind baulk on the opposite equivalent of the black spot, and counts eight; yellow and green are not used, "push shots" are allowed, fouling a ball with one's tie has no penalty, and sinking two reds at once means a score of two, for example). [1]
The dining room includes two long club tables, derived from the Club's original table d'hôte (a contrast to the contemporary habit of other clubs, where members tended to eat à la carte at small separate tables). In the Victorian period, the Savile was known for its freedom of conversation and conviviality.
Some traditions have been lost: regular cigar club dinners went with the smoking ban, but have since been revived in memoriam on the terrace (weather permitting); "the penny game" (a form of bowls, using coins rolled down grooves in the banisters of the grand curving staircase), disappeared with decimalisation; Friday-night candlelit dinners in the Ballroom for wives and girlfriends disappeared with changes in fashions and attitudes. The musical tradition continues, with informal lunchtime and evening concerts, jazz evenings, sponsorship of music students and an annual St Cecilia's Day concert, where Club members perform. A strong science connection has been revived with regular "Science at the Savile" talks. Other traditions have evolved: the preferred dress is still jacket and tie, but the code has been relaxed slightly to allow for the less formal attire worn in offices today; mobile phones are generally banned but can be used in the Club's old telephone area. [1]
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Acting and the theatre
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History and the military
Mathematics and computing
Medicine
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West Downs School, Romsey Road, Winchester, Hampshire, was an English independent preparatory school, which was established in 1897 and closed in 1988.
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The 1937 Coronation Honours were awarded in honour of the coronation of George VI.
Brooks's is a gentlemen's club in St James's Street, London. It is one of the oldest and most exclusive gentlemen's clubs in the world.
The 1935 Birthday Honours for the British Empire were announced on 3 June 1935 to celebrate the Birthday and Silver Jubilee of King George V.
The King's Birthday Honours 1950 were appointments in many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made to celebrate the official birthday of the King, and were published in supplements to the London Gazette of 2 June 1950 for the British Empire, Australia, Ceylon and New Zealand.
The 1949 King's Birthday Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth Realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. The appointments were made "on the occasion of the Celebration of His Majesty's Birthday", and were published in supplements to the London Gazette of 3 June 1949 for the British Empire, New Zealand, India and Ceylon.
The 1945 New Year Honours were appointments by many of the Commonwealth realms of King George VI to various orders and honours to reward and highlight good works by citizens of those countries. They were announced on 1 January 1945 for the British Empire, Canada, and the Union of South Africa to celebrate the past year and mark the beginning of 1945.
The Livingstone Medal is awarded by the Royal Scottish Geographical Society in recognition of outstanding service of a humanitarian nature with a clear geographical dimension. This was awarded first in 1901.
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