The Reform Club: Sir Charles Barry

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EARLY ENGLISH PORCELAIN C & S; LONDON SHAPE, ORIENTAL THEME. CA. 1820-40 PERFECT
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Cruchley's Picture of London 1850 folio color map guide
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Sir Walter Besant, in The Fascination of London, published in 1903, continues his survey of Pall Mall with this look at the Reform Club and its architect Sir Charles Barry:

The entrance to the War Office stands back behind a courtyard in which is a statue of Lord Herbert of Lea.

The War Office was originally at the Horse Guards, and since its removal has gradually extended its premises by absorbing one house after another.

We now come to a long series of clubs.

The Carlton is rich in ornament, with polished granite columns decorating a front of Caen stone.

The design was by Sydney Smirke, and is said to be founded on that of a Venetian palace.

It contrasts with its neighbour, the Reform, which presents a breadth of plain surface broken only by little pediments over the windows.

This was the work of Sir Charles Barry, and was copied from the Farnese Palace at Venice, of which the upper storey was the work of Michelangelo.

It is a dull, heavy-looking piece of work.

On part of its site stood the house of Angerstein, a Russian merchant, whose collection of pictures formed the nucleus of our National Gallery.

Next: London's Fashionable Clubs in 1900: The Travellers' Club