The Reform Club in London: a nineteenth-century collaboration - architectural design of private, social club

Magazine Antiques, June, 1994 by Mary Anne Hunting

Barry brought the Renaissance theme into the club by organizing the floor plan around a central saloon, or court, from which all rooms radiated (see Pl. III, Fig. 2). It was inspired by the Italian cortile, a walled courtyard popular in patrician villas. The English climate, however, required Barry to abandon his original roofless plan and enclose the saloon under a prismatic glass dome. It was surrounded on both the ground and first floors by galleries that gave onto the public rooms. The most important rooms on the ground floor were the morning room (Q in Fig. 2), coffee room (Fin Fig. 2), and private dining room (R in Fig. 2), while the principal rooms on the first floor were the library, drawing room, private drawing room, committee room, smoking room, and card room.

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In February 1840 the building committee asked Barry to "confer with the different tradesmen necessary for the purpose of preparing specifications of the furniture and fittings." They also requested "that an inventory be taken of the furniture on hand with a view of ascertaining how much of the same can be used in the new clubhouse."(10) Although Barry presented the results of his survey three weeks later, more than two months elapsed before he completed the specifications and drawings, which he provided to the newly created furnishing committee on May 12. Fourteen of these drawings, all bearing the same date, survive (see Figs. 5, 6).

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Seven furnishing firms were invited to enter a competition for the interior decorations. They were Taprell and Holland, Gillow and Company, Jackson and Graham, Thomas and George Seddon, Thomas Dowbiggin, a Mr. Webb (probably John Webb), and Edward Snell.(11) Specifications and drawings were sent to these tradesmen, who eventually were given five weeks to respond. They were required to break down their tenders into the following categories: furniture and upholstery, curtains, carpets, looking glasses, blinds, and the lodging department.(12)

After the tenders were submitted, Barry and the members developed a system for analyzing them. The club secretary compiled the bids for blinds, carpets, looking glasses, and furniture and upholstery into abstracts so that the tradesmen's bids could be easily compared.(13) The furniture and upholstery abstracts were organized by floor or area (saloon and staircase, basement, mezzanine, ground floor, first floor, attic, and lodging department), and each was further broken down by room with every item listed along with each firm's bid. Finally, a general abstract compared the tradesmen's total estimates. Barry may have devised this procedure since he wrote, "I console myself...that the club has also benefited largely by the system of competition which I have recommended and carried out."(14)

After reviewing the abstracts the furnishing committee, most likely alarmed at the high tenders, lowered their specifications for some of the furniture woods and upholstery materials and asked the tradesmen to adjust their bids accordingly. Although this reduced the projected costs by 7 to 12 percent, the club's general committee, which made the final decisions, did not agree to all the changes. Instead, it reinstated Barry's specifications in some cases or even upgraded them depending on its evaluation of the importance of each room.