The Athenaeum

The Athenaeum is a gentlemen's club dating from 1826 to 1830, designed by Decimus Burton for a club intended for "scientific and literary men and Artists", initiated by Croker. The building is constructed of stucco and has a concealed roof. Its design is a sophisticated example of Graeco-Roman architecture, intended to complement Nash’s former United Services Club. The original structure comprises two principal storeys and a recessed attic storey, added between 1899 and 1900 by T.E. Colcutt, with a basement below. The facade is seven windows wide facing Waterloo Place, and five windows wide on the elevations to Pall Mall and the garden.

The ground floor of the Waterloo Place facade is rusticated and features a central tetrastyle Roman Doric portico with coupled columns and terminal antae on pedestals, connected by steps. The ground floor windows are plate glass sashes in architraves with plain margins, recessed for one order and featuring voussoired flat arches. The first floor windows are French casements in architraves, flanked by panelled strips and supported by acanthus consoles carrying cornices. The triglyphs of the Doric entablature above the ground floor are developed into brackets which support a balcony with slender cast iron Grecian balustrade rails and corner pedestals bearing tripod lamps. A stone balustrade is positioned over the portico, with a solid central bay surmounted by a gilded statue of Athene, carved by E.H. Baily. A frieze, carved in Bath stone and now painted in the style of Wedgwood, is a particular feature, along with the enriched cornice and balustraded parapet, which together frame the "piano nobile". A stone parapet was added in 1894, enclosing the area.

The interior is distinguished, featuring a basilican entrance hall. The “nave” of the hall is tunnel vaulted and retains original light fittings between Greek columns, and was redecorated by Alma Tadema. A grand staircase rises directly from the hall, splits into two flights, and returns to the first floor landing above the tunnel vault. The landing is lit by an octagonal dome, with the upper part of the intermediate landing wall treated as a pseudo-portico displaying a gilded plaster cast of the Apollo Belvedere. There is also a Grecian-style morning room and coffee room, and a large tripartite drawing room located behind the garden front on the first floor. The main library, added in 1856, includes a gallery and a spiral staircase.