Lansdowne Club

Lansdowne Club, Fitzmaurice Place, London

A detached town house built between 1762 and 1768 by Robert Adam for Lord Bute. The house was sold in 1765 to the Earl of Shelburne, later Lord Lansdowne, and became known as Shelburne House and subsequently Lansdowne House. Interiors were remodelled between 1791 and 1794 by George Dance the Younger, with further alterations by Robert Smirke from 1816 to 1819, and by T.H. Wyatt in the 1870s. The building was sold in 1929 to the Bruton Club. Following demolition of the front section, the facade was reinstated and the building extended in 1931-32 by Charles Fox, with interiors by White Allom. The Lansdowne Club opened in 1935.

The exterior is faced in Portland stone ashlar with slate mansard roofs. The building comprises three storeys with attics and a basement across eight bays, of which five bays form the reconstructed facade with heightened and contracted proportions relative to the original. The ground floor is rusticated with a former pedimented centrepiece slightly set forward. Giant order tetrastyle Ionic pilasters articulate the upper floors. The entrance, dating from the 1930s renovation, sits under a square overlight and is flanked by tall square-headed windows. Flanking round-headed windows with glazing extending the full height feature balustraded window guards based on the original wings. Upper floor windows are square-headed and proportionally taller than Adam's originals. A slender first floor cill band and enriched second floor band and frieze derive from the original house. The steep mansard roof features small full-height dormers.

The entrance hall is a 1930s insertion of stone with painted trompe l'oeil decoration, with central steps to a desk flanked by former doorways and side steps with an iron balustrade.

The former First Drawing Room, now the Adam Bar, has altered proportions from the original. Its decoration is based on the former Ante Room, and features a ceiling originally in the Ante Room with lunettes by Cipriani and a marble chimneypiece formerly in the Third Drawing Room.

The Round Room, also known as the Second Drawing Room or Bow Room, was designed by Adam and completed in 1776, then remodelled in 1792 by Dance. This circular domed chamber features a painted neo-classical frieze, possibly by Cipriani, a marble chimneypiece, flanking alcoves, and fine mahogany doors in enriched doorcases. This represents a rare survival of a Dance interior. The draft treaty for Independence for America was drawn up in this room.

The Hall, formerly the Third Drawing Room, was designed by Adam, dismantled and reconstructed in 1935 when a lift was installed. The ceiling was modified, though the wall treatment remains largely intact, featuring paired mahogany doors in painted architraves and a stone classical panel to each frieze.

The Library and Sculpture Gallery, later converted to a ballroom, was conceived by Adam as a Roman Imperial hall with a segmental coffered ceiling. Built initially as a carcass, it was redesigned by Dance in 1788-94 and completed as a sculpture gallery by Smirke in 1819, then altered in 1935 to become a ballroom. Fox reset the coffered ceiling to carry the upper floors while retaining Smirke's rosettes. Giant pilasters articulate the walls, added by Smirke. The former high domed rotundas were altered to alcoves by Fox with flattened ceilings and windows removed; balconies were installed using the iron balustrade from the original grand staircase, and sculpture niches were removed. The main walls are articulated by round-headed niches with plaster panels above and uplighters between. A wall connecting to Wyatt's gallery, altered in the 1870s, remains; a Dance chimneypiece fitted by Smirke was removed in the 1930s.

The Gallery, by Wyatt, spans five bays with rib vaulting terminating in a coffered alcove. Pilasters were formerly marbled. A parquetry floor survives, and the wall brackets are said to be original.

The Restaurant is largely a 1935 creation with a renewed colour scheme, added wall paintings and glazed panels, and 1935 uplighters, one with a replicated bowl.

Additional spaces include a Ladies Lounge and Boudoir with dressing tables, and a Smoking Room from 1935 featuring round-edged pilaster strips, simple cornicing, and bays with round-headed panels. The original wood veneers have been replaced by paint. A red marble chimneypiece with flanking pedestals and uplighters occupies one wall.

The Swimming Pool and Bar features a sunk pool, formerly with diving boards; a gallery above now serves as a fitness suite and bar with a tasselled fluted frieze to piers and ceiling, and a balustrade with uplighters, mostly original with some replicas. Etched glass plates depicting the Shell Building and Tower of London, part of a series of views from the River Thames, formerly in the cocktail bar, have been relocated to the first floor.

A Sun Room, truncated and reglazed, features veneered walls.

The Principal Drawing Room of the Adam house is now in the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Dining Room is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York.