United University Club

The United University Club was a London gentlemen's club, founded in 1821. It occupied the purpose-built University Club House, at 1, Suffolk Street, London, England, from 1826 until 1971.

The Club was founded at a meeting held at the Thatched House Tavern on 30 June 1821 and held its first Annual General Meeting at Willis's Rooms on 27 April 1822, under the chairmanship of Prince William Frederick, Duke of Gloucester and Edinburgh.

It was agreed that the Club would admit no more than one thousand members and former members of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, five hundred from each. This limitation remained in place for more than one hundred years. As a result, only eight years after the Club's foundation, its waiting list was so long that a second club was formed, called the Oxford and Cambridge Club.

The initial entrance-fee was set at twenty-five guineas and the annual subscription at six guineas. By 1879, these figures had increased to thirty guineas and eight guineas. It was reported in Dickens's Dictionary of London (1879) that "The members elect by ballot, one black ball in ten excludes".

The Club's premises, called the University Club House, were at 1, Suffolk Street, London near Trafalgar Square. They were designed by the architect William Wilkins RA and by his colleague J. P. Gandy and opened on 13 February 1826. Wilkins was also the architect of the nearby National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, finished in 1838, and of the main buildings of Downing College, Cambridge.

The Club was re-built on a grander scale in 1906, with Reginald Blomfield as architect. In 1906, friezes by Henry Alfred Pegram RA (1862–1937) were also commissioned. An extension was added on the north side of the building in 1924 (again designed by Blomfield) and another extension on the east side in 1939–40.

...
Wikipedia