Returning to The Athenaeum Club in Pall Mall is always a pleasure, and we are proud of the fact they have been a client of ours for many years. We were commissioned to archive the history of this fantastic club through photography and have revisited the establishment over those years to add to the portfolio. The Athenaeum is a private members' club in London, founded in 1824. It is primarily a club for men and women with intellectual interests, and particularly (but not exclusively) for those who have attained some distinction in science, engineering, literature or the arts.
Many a famous member has passed through their doors, including Rudyard Kipling, Thomas Hardy, Charles Darwin, Charles Dickens, Sir Robert Peel, Robert Louis Stevenson, Sir Issac Newton, William Shakespeare and Sir Walter Scott, to name but a few. The impressive clubhouse (at 107 Pall Mall at the corner of Waterloo Place) was designed by Decimus Burton in the Neoclassical style, and built by his father, James Burton, the pre-eminent London property developer. Decimus was described by architectural scholar Guy Williams as 'the designer and prime member of the Athenaeum, one of London's grandest gentlemens' [sic] clubs'. The Clubhouse has a Doric portico, above which is a statue of the classical goddess of wisdom, Athena, from whom the Club derives its name. The bas-relief frieze is a copy of the frieze of the Parthenon in Athens. The club's facilities include an extensive library, a dining room known as the Coffee Room, a Morning Room, a Drawing Room on the first floor, a newly restored Smoking Room on the upper floor, where smoking is not permitted, and a suite of bedrooms. We thoroughly enjoyed our latest photo shoot at the Club and look forward to returning in the future to continue our archiving work. Browse our Location Photography portfolio Comments are closed.
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January 2021
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