Devonshire Club

TQ 2980 SW CITY OF WESTMINSTER ST. JAMES'S STREET SW1 81/112 (West side) No 50 (Devonshire Club) 5.2.70 GV II Gentlemen's Club. 1827 by Benjamin D. Wyatt and Philip Wyatt, altered 1870-75 by C. J. Phipps; originally Crockford's. Portland stone with rusticated ground floor and quoins. Augustan classicism. 3 storeys and basement. 5 windows wide. Central columned entrance with side windows and canted bay windows flanking each end of ground floor. 3 window centrepiece on upper floors articulated by engaged giant order of Corinthian columns, rising to main entablature, the 1st floor windows of centrepiece with segmental pediments whilst the flanking bays have tripartite Corinthian columned windows under triangular pediments. The main crowning entablature has dentil and modillion cornice and balustraded parapet capped with urns; enriched 2nd floor sill band. Stone balustraded wall to area and stone balustrades to 1st floor windows. Grand club interior with top lit staircase with oval dome. Crockford's was the first club to initiate the transition from neoclassical to French Rococo-inspired decoration and the dining room chimneypiece is a surviving example of Wyatt's original interior in this style; the decoration is otherwise principally of the 1870s in French and Italian taste. Survey of London; vol XXX The Devonshire Club and 'Crockford's' ; H. R.Waddy,1919

Listing NGR: TQ2914280356