The United University Club was a London gentlemen's club, founded in 1821. It occupied the purpose-built University Club House, at 1, Suffolk Street, London, England, from 1826 until 1971.
The club was founded at a meeting held at the Thatched House Tavern on 30 June 1821 and held its first Annual General Meeting at Willis's Rooms on 27 April 1822, under the chairmanship of Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh. [1]
It was agreed that the club would admit no more than one thousand members and former members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, five hundred from each. This limitation remained in place for more than one hundred years. [1] As a result, only eight years after the club's foundation, its waiting list was so long that a second club was formed, called the Oxford and Cambridge Club. [1]
The initial entrance-fee was set at twenty-five guineas and the annual subscription at six guineas. [2] By 1879, these figures had increased to thirty guineas and eight guineas. [3] It was reported in Dickens's Dictionary of London (1879) that "The members elect by ballot, one black ball in ten excludes". [3]
The club's premises, called the University Club House, were at 1, Suffolk Street, London near Trafalgar Square. [1] They were designed by the architect William Wilkins RA and by his colleague J. P. Gandy and opened on 13 February 1826. [2] Wilkins was also the architect of the nearby National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, finished in 1838, and of the main buildings of Downing College, Cambridge. [4]
The club was re-built on a grander scale in 1906, with Reginald Blomfield as architect. [5] In 1906, friezes by Henry Alfred Pegram RA (1862–1937) were also commissioned. [6] An extension was added on the north side of the building in 1924 (again designed by Blomfield) and another extension on the east side in 1939–40. [5]
Sir Nikolaus Pevsner described the development as "Sir Reginald Blomfield’s essay in Champs Elysées style". [7]
A third club for members of the two Universities, founded in 1864 and called the New University Club, had its rooms at 57 St James's Street. This amalgamated with the United University Club in 1938. [1]
After the Second World War, the gentlemen's clubs of London fell into a decline, and in 1971 the United University Club closed its premises. [5] In March 1972, it was merged with the Oxford and Cambridge Club. [5] The combined club was initially called the 'United Oxford and Cambridge University Club' and in 1972–73 was housed at the University Club House, but thereafter it occupied the club house further down Pall Mall designed for the Oxford and Cambridge Club in 1836. The lease of the University Club House was surrendered to the ground landlord, the Crown Estate. [8] The merged University club reverted to the name "Oxford and Cambridge Club" in 2001. [1]
Number One Suffolk Street was occupied from 1973 until 1980 by the bankers Coutts & Co., from 1980 to 1997 by the British School of Osteopathy, and since 1998 as the London Centre of the University of Notre Dame. The Centre enables the Colleges of Arts & Letters, Business Administration, Science, Engineering and the Law School to develop their own programs in London. [9]
William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne, in some sources called Henry William Lamb, was a Whig politician who served as the Home Secretary and twice as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Imperial College London is a public research university in London, England. Its history began with Prince Albert, consort of Queen Victoria, who developed his vision for a cultural area that included the Royal Albert Hall, Victoria & Albert Museum, Natural History Museum and several royal colleges. In 1907, Imperial College London was established by royal charter, unifying the Royal College of Science, Royal School of Mines, and City and Guilds of London Institute. In 1988, the Imperial College School of Medicine was formed by merging with St Mary's Hospital Medical School. In 2004, Queen Elizabeth II opened the Imperial College Business School.
William Baliol Brett, 1st Viscount Esher, PC, known as Sir William Brett between 1868 and 1883, was a British lawyer, judge, and Conservative politician. He was briefly Solicitor-General under Benjamin Disraeli and then served as a justice of the Court of Common Pleas between 1868 and 1876, as a Lord Justice of Appeal between 1876 and 1883 and as Master of the Rolls. He was raised to the peerage as Baron Esher in 1885 and further honoured when he was made Viscount Esher on his retirement in 1897.
Sir Arthur William Blomfield was an English architect. He became president of the Architectural Association in 1861; a Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1867 and vice-president of the RIBA in 1886. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied Architecture.
Sir Reginald Theodore Blomfield was a prolific British architect, garden designer and author of the Victorian and Edwardian period.
Sir Henry Roy Forbes Harrod was an English economist. He is best known for writing The Life of John Maynard Keynes (1951) and for the development of the Harrod–Domar model, which he and Evsey Domar developed independently. He is also known for his International Economics, a former standard textbook, the first edition of which contained some observations and ruminations that would foreshadow theories developed independently by later scholars.
The Oxford and Cambridge Club is a traditional London club. Membership is largely restricted to those who are members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, including men and women who have a degree from or who are current students of either university.
St Faith's School is a private preparatory day school on Trumpington Road, Cambridge, England, for girls and boys aged four to thirteen. The headmaster is Crispin Hyde-Dunn, and the school has in excess of five hundred children. St Faith's is part of The Leys and St Faith's Schools Foundation. It is named after the French martyr St Faith.
The Palestine Police Force was a British colonial police service established in Mandatory Palestine on 1 July 1920, when High Commissioner Sir Herbert Samuel's civil administration took over responsibility for security from General Allenby's Occupied Enemy Territory Administration (South).
The St James's Club was a London gentlemen's club which operated between 1857 and 1978. It was founded by two leading diplomats and its members continued to be largely diplomats and authors. It was first established in Charles Street and moved to 106 Piccadilly by 1868. In the final quarter of the twentieth century many gentlemen’s clubs of London suffered from declining membership, and in 1978 the St James's Club merged with Brooks's Club and vacated its premises.
Sir Albert Raymond Maillard Carr was an English historian specialising in the history of Spain, Latin America, and Sweden. From 1968 to 1987, he was Warden of St Antony's College, Oxford.
The Gresham Club was founded in 1843 and dissolved in 1991. It was named after Thomas Gresham. The Gresham Club's last site was located on Abchurch Lane off King William Street before it was sold to the London Capital Club, which in turn ceased operation in 2018. Following the closure of the London Capital Club, a number of the members relaunched The Gresham Club in 2018 and recreated the raison d'etre of its original predecessor.
The Army and Navy Club in London is a private members club founded in 1837, also known informally as The Rag.
The Oriental Club in London is an exclusive Private Members’ Club established in 1824. Charles Graves describes it as fine in quality as White's but with the space of infinitely larger clubs. It is located in Stratford Place, near Oxford Street and Bond Street.
The Regius Chair of Civil Law, founded in the 1540s, is one of the oldest professorships at the University of Oxford.
Francis John Savile Foljambe was a British Liberal Member of Parliament.
Edward Augustus Stratford, 2nd Earl of Aldborough, of Belan house, styled The Honourable from 1763 to 1777 and Viscount Amiens in the latter year, was an Irish peer, Whig politician, and member of the Noble House of Stratford. He sat in the Irish House of Commons between 1759 and 1777 and in the British House of Commons from 1774 to 1775.
The Rev. George John Blomfield was an Anglican clergyman. A nephew of the Rt. Rev. Charles James Blomfield, Bishop of London, he was the father of Major-General Charles James Blomfield and Sir Reginald Blomfield.
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