The Reform Club is a gentlemen’s club on the south side of Pall Mall, in central London. Originally for men only, it changed to include the admission of women in 1981. The club enjoys extensive reciprocity with clubs around the world, and attracts significant numbers of foreign members, including diplomats.
The club was founded in 1836 by Edward Ellice, MP for Coventry and Whig Whip, whose riches came from the Hudson’s Bay Company but whose zeal was chiefly devoted to securing the passage of the Reform Act 1832.
The new club, for members of both Houses of Parliament, was intended to be a centre for the radical ideas which that Bill represented; a bastion of liberal and progressive thought that became closely associated with the Liberal Party, which largely succeeded the Whigs in the later 19th century.
Brooks’s Club, the headquarters of the old Whig aristocracy, was unable nor prepared to open its doors to a flood of new men, so preliminary meetings were held at Ellice’s house to plan a much larger club, which would promote ‘the social intercourse of the reformers of the United Kingdom’.
The Reform Club’s building, like the one adjacent that of the Travellers Club (at number 106), was designed by Sir Charles Barry and opened in 1841. This new club was palatial, the design being based on the Farnese Palace in Rome, and its saloon is regarded as the finest room of all London clubs.
The Reform was among the first senior London clubs to have bedrooms (known as chambers), and its library contains over 75,000 books, mostly of a political, historical and biographical nature. Traditionally, members donate a copy of any book they write to the club’s library, ever increasing its stock.
After World War II and with the Liberal Party’s decline, the club increasingly drew its membership from civil servants and those from the Treasury in particular, whereas the neighbouring Travellers Club became synonymous with Foreign Office officials.
The Club no longer represents any particular political view, being a purely social venue.
The club has been used as a location in a number of films, including the fencing scene in the 2002 James Bond film “Die Another Day”, “The Quiller Memorandum” (1966), “The Man Who Haunted Himself” (1970), “O Lucky Man!” (1973), “Quantum of Solace” (2008) and “Sherlock Holmes” (2009).
If you plan to visit the club, you have to stick to a strict dress code. You can find more on http://www.reformclub.com/home/events