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Brooks's
Brooks's is a gentlemen's club in St James's Street, London. It is one of the oldest and most exclusive gentlemen's clubs in the world. History In January 1762, a private society was established at 50 Pall Mall by Messrs. Boothby and James in response to having been blackballed for membership of White's. This society then split to form the predecessors of both Brooks's and Boodle's. The club that was to become Brooks's was founded in March 1764 by twenty-seven prominent Whig nobles including the Duke of Portland, the Duke of Roxburghe, Lord Crewe and Lord Strathmore. Charles James Fox was elected as a member the following year at the age of sixteen. The club premises at 49 Pall Mall was a former tavern owned by William Almack as was the neighbouring 50 Pall Mall where the society had previously met and so the club become simply known as Almack's. These fashionable young men, known as Macaronis, would frequent the premises for the purposes of wining, dining and gambl ...
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Almack's
Almack's was the name of a number of establishments and social clubs in London between the 18th and 20th centuries. Two of the social clubs would go on to fame as Brooks's and Boodle's. Almack's most famous establishment was based in assembly rooms on King Street, St James's, and was one of a limited number of upper-class mixed-sex public social venues in the British capital in an era when the most important venues for the hectic social season were the grand houses of the aristocracy. The site of the club, Almack's Assembly Rooms or (from 1781) Willis's Rooms, has become retrospectively interchangeable with the club, though for much of the club's lifetime, the rooms offered a variety of other entertainments with no connection to the club. William Almack The history of Almack's begins with its founder William Almack (the elder). One popular theory, circulated since 1811, supposes him to have been Scottish, his real name 'M'Caul', and that he had changed it because he found th ...
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St James's Club
The St James's Club was a London gentlemen's club which operated between 1857 and 1978. It was founded by two leading diplomats and its members continued to be largely diplomats and authors. It was first established in Bennet Street, and after a brief spell in Mayfair, moved to 106 Piccadilly by 1868. In the final quarter of the twentieth century many gentlemen’s clubs of London suffered from declining membership, and in 1978 the St James's Club merged with Brooks's Club and vacated its premises. Foundation The club was founded in 1857 by the Liberal statesman the second Earl Granville and by the Marchese d'Azeglio, Minister of Sardinia to the Court of St. James's, after a dispute at the Travellers' Club. Most members of the diplomatic corps resigned from the Travellers' and joined the new club. The club's members continued to be largely diplomats and authors, and it became the home of the Dilettanti Society. According to the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' article ''Club'' ...
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William Almack
William Almack (1741–1781) was an English valet, merchant and tavern owner, who became the founder of fashionable clubs and assembly-rooms. His Almack's Coffee House was bought in 1774 and became the gentlemen's club, Brooks's. Biography According to one account he was descended from a Yorkshire family of Quakers; he came to London at an early age as the valet of the James Douglas-Hamilton, 5th Duke of Hamilton. Towards the middle of the eighteenth century Almack became proprietor of the Thatched House Tavern in St. James's Street. Before 1763 he opened a gaming-club in Pall Mall, which was known as Almack's Club, and from that date till his death he was the leading caterer for the amusement of the fashionable world of London. Among the twenty-seven original members of Almack's Club were the Duke of Portland and Charles James Fox, and it was subsequently joined by Edward Gibbon, William Pitt, and very many noblemen. Brooks's, one of London's most exclusive gentlemen's club ...
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Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a British British Whig Party, Whig politician and statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He was the rival, arch-rival of the Tories (British political party), Tory politician William Pitt the Younger; his father Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, a leading Whig of his day, had similarly been the great rival of Pitt's famous father, William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham ("Pitt the Elder"). Fox rose to prominence in the House of Commons of Great Britain, House of Commons as a forceful and eloquent speaker with a notorious and colourful private life, though at that time with rather conservative and conventional opinions. However, with the coming of the American War of Independence and the influence of the Whig Edmund Burke, Fox's opinions evolved into some of the most Classical radicalism, radical to be aired in the British Parliament ...
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Henry Holland (architect)
Henry Holland (20 July 1745 – 17 June 1806) was an architect to the English nobility. He was born in Fulham, London, where his father, also Henry, ran a building firm constructing several of Capability Brown's designs. His younger brother was Richard Holland, who later changed his surname to Bateman-Robson and became an MP. Although Henry would learn a lot from his father about the practicalities of construction, it was under Capability Brown that he would learn about architectural design. Brown and Holland formed a partnership in 1771 and Henry Holland married Brown's daughter Bridget on 11 February 1773 at St George's, Hanover Square. In 1772 Sir John Soane joined Holland's practice in order to further his education, leaving in 1778 to study in Rome. Holland paid a visit to Paris in 1787 which is thought to have been in connection with his design of the interiors at Carlton House. From this moment on his interior work owed less to the Adam style and more to contemporary F ...
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Dilettanti Society
The Society of Dilettanti (founded 1734) is a British society of noblemen and scholars that sponsored the study of ancient Greek and Roman art, and the creation of new work in the style. History Though the exact date is unknown, the Society is believed to have been established as a gentlemen's club in 1734 by a group of people who had been on the Grand Tour. Records of the earliest meeting of the society were written somewhat informally on loose pieces of paper. The first entry in the first minute book of the society is dated 5 April 1736. For a number of years it held its meetings at the Thatched House Tavern in St James's. In 1743, Horace Walpole condemned its affectations and described it as "... a club, for which the nominal qualification is having been in Italy, and the real one, being drunk: the two chiefs are Lord Middlesex and Sir Francis Dashwood, who were seldom sober the whole time they were in Italy." The group, initially led by Francis Dashwood, contained sev ...
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Gentlemen's Club
A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally established by males from Britain's upper classes starting in the 17th century. Many countries outside Britain have prominent gentlemen's clubs, mostly those associated with the British Empire such as the Royal Society in London set up in 1660. The form spread to other parts of the Empire such as Australia, India, Ireland, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. There are also many similar clubs in major American cities, especially the older ones. The gentlemen’s club in Moscow (Angliyskoye sobranie, rus. Английское собрание), founded approximately in 1772, was the centre of noble social and political life in the 18th-19th centuries, and largely determined public opinion. By their nature gentlemen's clubs were often founded by, and created and reinforced, old boy networks. A typical club contains a bar, a library, one or more parlours for reading, gaming, or socializing, a billiard room, and a formal din ...
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Boodle's
Boodle's is a gentlemen's club in London, England, with its clubhouse located at 28 St James's Street. Founded in January 1762 by Lord Shelburne, who later became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and then 1st Marquess of Lansdowne, it is the second oldest private members' club in London and in the world. History The club was originally based next door to William Almack's tavern (which was situated at 49 Pall Mall in the St James's district of London), in a house also run by him; the club therefore was known as Almack's. It appears to have been formed in opposition to White's (then often called Arthur's) – rule 12 as originally drafted forbade any member of Almack's from membership of any other London club, 'nor of what is at present called Arthur's or by whatever Name that Society or Club may be afterwards called, neither of new or old club or any other belonging to it'. In February 1763 this rule was altered and made even more emphatic – 'If any Member of this Soc ...
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Mile High Club
The mile high club is slang for people who have had sexual intercourse on board an aircraft during flight. While this usually refers to sexual acts in an airliner lavatory (for privacy), a sexual act anywhere on a plane in flight would fit the term. The actual height of the aircraft at the time the act takes place is not relevant; sexual activity in a plane flying 10 feet off the ground would still qualify. An alleged explanation for wanting to perform the act is the supposed vibration of the plane. Some also theorize that people who engage in the act have had personal fantasies about pilots, flight attendants, or other aircraft crew, or a fetish about planes themselves, a type of mechanophilia. For others, the appeal of joining the mile-high club is the thrill of doing something taboo and the thrill of the risk of being discovered, as well as the thrill of simply engaging in sexual intercourse thousands of feet above the earth. History An early reference to the concept is fo ...
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George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess Of Cholmondeley
George James Cholmondeley, 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley, ( ; 11 May 1749 – 10 April 1827), styled Viscount Malpas between 1764 and 1770 and known as the Earl of Cholmondeley between 1770 and 1815, was a British peer and politician. Background and education Cholmondeley was the son of George Cholmondeley, Viscount Malpas, and Hester Edwardes. George Cholmondeley, 3rd Earl of Cholmondeley, was his grandfather. He was a direct descendant of Sir Robert Walpole, the first Prime Minister of Great Britain The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pr .... He was educated at Eton College, Eton. In January 1776, Cholmondeley began an affair with the noted beauty Grace Elliott, Grace Dalrymple Elliot, allegedly taking her up during a Pantheon masquerade ball. Grace was legally separate ...
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St James's Street
St James's Street is the principal street in the district of St James's, central London. It runs from Piccadilly downhill to St James's Palace and Pall Mall. The main gatehouse of the Palace is at the southern end of the road; in the 17th century, Clarendon House faced down the street across Piccadilly from the site of what is now Albemarle Street. History St James's Street was developed without an overall plan. It received a boost with Lord St Albans' planned construction of harmonious grand town houses at St James's Square. Today St James's Street contains several of London's best-known gentlemen's clubs (such as Boodle's, Brooks's, the Carlton Club and White's), some exclusive shops and various offices. A series of small side streets on its western side lead to some extremely expensive properties overlooking Green Park, including Spencer House and the Royal Over-Seas League at the end of Park Place. Two 18th-century yards survive behind the noble frontages of the ...
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Gentlemen's Club
A gentlemen's club is a private social club of a type originally established by males from Britain's upper classes starting in the 17th century. Many countries outside Britain have prominent gentlemen's clubs, mostly those associated with the British Empire such as the Royal Society in London set up in 1660. The form spread to other parts of the Empire such as Australia, India, Ireland, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. There are also many similar clubs in major American cities, especially the older ones. The gentlemen’s club in Moscow (Angliyskoye sobranie, rus. Английское собрание), founded approximately in 1772, was the centre of noble social and political life in the 18th-19th centuries, and largely determined public opinion. By their nature gentlemen's clubs were often founded by, and created and reinforced, old boy networks. A typical club contains a bar, a library, one or more parlours for reading, gaming, or socializing, a billiard room, and a formal din ...
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