The Royal Naval Club

The Royal Naval Club is a building of the 18th century, significantly altered between 1871 and 1875 by Thomas Hellyer. It originally comprised two houses and is now the only Royal Naval Club in existence, founded in 1867. The exterior is constructed of grey header brick with red brick dressings and stucco. The roof is slate, with brick stacks on the left and right. The building is in an Italianate style.

It is three storeys high with a prominent four-storey central tower. The building has seven bays, with the tower set back. The projecting wings have stuccoed ground floors and rusticated rendered quoins to all other storeys. The tower section is stuccoed to its full height. The central entrance features a six-panelled double door with the upper four panels glazed, above a semicircular fixed panel within a moulded stucco surround. The surround is embellished with a keystone bearing Royal Naval insignia and rope moulded corner details. Two paired sash windows are featured to each wing on the left and right, set beneath segmental stuccoed arches with dividing colonnettes, keystones, and rendered surrounds; a single segmental arched sash is placed between the paired windows. A bracketed sillband runs along the facade.

A bracketed balcony with patterned iron balustrade is located to each wing on the first floor, alongside a central French casement set under a gauged brick segmental arch with stone imposts and keystone. Flanking the French casement are tripartite canted bay windows with central sashes, narrow side sashes, segmental arched overlights, pilasters dividing the lights, rectangular cornices and metal tented roofs. The second floor features two paired round-headed sashes to each wing, set under gauged brick round arches with stone dividing colonnettes, imposts and keystones; a single round-headed sash is placed between. A bracketed stone sillband runs along the facade. A moulded stone band sits below a bracketed cornice, broken back over the tower section with a lunette plaque over, featuring a relief of a crown and anchor flanked by dolphins and a ship of the line.

The central tower section has a bracketed rendered balcony with rounded quoins and a central iron grille on its first floor, alongside a French casement set under a segmental rendered surround and imposts. A shallow bracketed band sits above. A round-arched sash is located on the second floor. The top stage of the tower features three sash windows on each side, flanking pilasters, arch-volts with blind tympanum, impost and sill mouldings carried all the way round, and a console bracketed moulded cornice over an arcaded balustrade to the parapet. The tower was historically used to signal to ships at Spithead. The interior of the building was not inspected during the listing process.