Piccadilly: Almack's Assembly Rooms

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Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of Piccadilly with this look at Almack's Assembly Rooms:

In King Street are Willis's Rooms, once Almack's, at one time the scene of many fashionable assemblies.

The rooms were opened in 1765, and a ten-guinea subscription included a ball and supper once a week for three months.

Ladies were eligible for membership, and thus the place can claim to have been one of the earliest ladies' clubs.

Walpole writes in 1770 to George Montagu: "It is a club of both sexes to be erected at Almack's on the model of that of the men at White's...I am ashamed to say I am of so young and fashionable society."

The lady patronesses were of the very highest rank.

Timbs quotes from a letter of Gilly Williams: "You may imagine by the sum, the company is chosen, though refined as it is, it will scarcely put old Soho (Mrs. Cornelys) out of countenance."

The place steadily maintained its popularity.

Captain Gronow in 1814 says: "At the present time one can hardly conceive the importance which was attached to getting admission to Almack's, the seventh heaven of the fashionable world."

The large ballroom was about 100 feet in length by 40 in width, and the largest number of persons present at one time was 1,700.

It is often mentioned in the contemporary fiction dealing with fashionable society; indeed, the whole of this neighbourhood was the theatre for much of the gay life of the eighteenth century.

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