Modern club-houses are, for the most part, splendid specimens of the
style which luxury and good-living have attained in this country.
Such are their internal recommendations; but to the public they are
interesting for the architectural embellishment which they add to the
streets of the metropolis. If we reason on Bishop Berkeley's theory--that
all the mansions, equipages, &c. we see abroad, are intended for our
gratification--we must soon forget the turtle, venison, and claret
that are stored in the larders and cellars of club-houses, whilst
our admiration is awakened at the taste which is lavished on their
exteriors.
The "United Service" Club-House is, as its name implies, intended for
the Officers of the Army and Navy, who, in these pacific times, may here
enjoy _otium cum dignitate_, and fill up the intervals of refection, in
reading the "history of the war," from the noble quarto to the last
dispatches received at the Foreign Office.
The above Club-House, which occupies an angle of Charles-street and
Regent-street, is, however, but a meagre specimen of the abilities of
the architect, Mr. Smirke. It has none of the characteristic decorations
of either service, if we except the bas-relief on the entrance-front in
Charles street, which represents Britannia distributing laurels to her
brave sons by land and sea. The architecture of the whole is cold and
unfeeling, and even the columns supporting the porticoes are of a very
rigid order--when we consider that the clubhouse is not an official
establishment, but one intended for luxurious accommodation, and that it
would have admitted of much more florid embellishment. At the same time,
although we quarrel with the frigidity of the exterior, we do not
question the warmth of its kitchens, or the potency of its cellars;
neither do we affect any knowledge of the latter--nay, not even enough
to weave into a "fashionable" novel.
A new mansion is building for the United Service Club, on the site of
Carlton House, under the superintendance of Mr. Nash, and which, with
another new clubhouse for the Athaenaeum, will form an entrance to the
new square opposite Waterloo-Place. The taste of the sword and pen does
not, however, agree, and their buildings are dissimilar. In the United
Service Club are two rooms of 150 feet by 50, the floors of which are
constructed of cast-iron girders. At the back of these club-houses will
be a large ornamental garden.
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