Description

TQ 2980 SE CITY OF WESTMINSTER PALL MALL, SW1 82/69 (south side) 5.2.70 Nos. 89 to 91 consec: The Royal Automobile Club G.V. II* Grand club-house. 1908-11 by Charles Mewes and Arthur Davis with E. Keynes Purchase. Steel frame and concrete cased in Portland stone slate roof. Palatial Dixhuitieme elevation derived from Gabriel's Place de la Concorde facades and equally appropriately, J.H. Mansart's Place Vendrome. (c.f. the pavilion occupied by the Ritz Hotel and fitted out for Ritz by Mewes.) 3 main storeys, basement and dormered mansard. Slightly advanced 3 window wide pedimented centrepiece pavilion flanked by 6-window wide wings. Channelled ground floor with central entrance having a finely proportioned architrave doorcase with panelled reveals (flanked by narrow side windows), the head framed by large rich console brackets surmounted by stone balustered balcony in the Gabriel manner. The wings have semicircular arched windows, their metal casements recessed in concave reveals. On the upper floors the windows have architraves with cornices to the French casements of the "bel stage" and panelled aprons and enriched keys on the 2nd floor. Both floors are articulated by a grand giant Ionic order, engaged to the wings and free standing in antis to the centrepiece, both the latter and the wings flanked by broad piers with wreathed Gabriel cartouches and pendant trophies, supporting a modillion corniced entablature with carving in the frieze over the piers and with the centrepiece surmounted by a figure sculptured pediment. Balustrades between the pedestals of the giant order and balustraded parapet fronting the dormers with iron flambeau-vases above the terminal piers. Balustraded area with 4 lampstandards and ornate bracket lamps flanking central entrances. The rear to Carlton Gardens has an elevation more reminiscent of Francois Mansart or Le Vau in the plastic modelling of its planes. Interior an excellent example of Beaux Arts planning on the grand scale with vast public rooms decorated in "stuc" in very convincing (if typically rather overscaled) late Louis XV/Louis XVI or Grand Siecle style by Boulanger and by Remon of Paris combined with Palladian and neo-Chambers interiors by Lenygon and Morant; spectacular basement "Pompeian" swimming pool with scale patterned mosaic columns of a type previously designed by Mewes for the Gallery and Spring Pavilion at Contrexeville Spa (Vosges); etc. French stone carvers and blacksmiths were also employed by Mewes for the facades. Survey of London; Vol. XXXIV. London 1900;AD Profiles 13: Gavin Stamp.

Listing NGR: TQ2952080203

External Links

• Wikidata Q79764425

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Recommended Books

• 
  Department for Communities Listed Historic Buildings of Northern Ireland: Information Guide for the 2nd Survey of Historic Buildings
• 
  Georgian Style and Design for Contemporary Living
• 
  County Durham (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England) by Elizabeth Williamson Nikolaus Pevsner(1983-03-11)
• 
  ENGLAND GUIDE TO POST WAR LISTED: A Guide to Post-war Listed Buildings
• 
  Northamptonshire: Buildings of England Series (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
• 
  Suffolk: East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)