Athenaeum Club
The Athenaeum Club is one of the most prestigious British clubs in London .
Alignment
Originally, the club, founded in 1824 by John Wilson Croker and Thomas Lawrence , among others , was primarily intended for artists, writers and scientists. Accordingly, the club emblem also adorns the head of the Greek goddess of wisdom Athena . Admission was therefore not linked to birth, status or wealth to the same extent as with other clubs, but rather to the applicant's own performance in his respective specialist discipline. Accordingly, the Athenaeum has produced over fifty Nobel Prize winners in the course of its almost two hundred year history , at least one of them in each discipline. The club is also famous for its library of more than 80,000 volumes . In the course of time, the scientific and artistic direction was, of course, somewhat watered down by the increased acceptance of politicians, bishops and nobles.
Members
The number of members was originally limited to 1,000, but was occasionally increased temporarily or permanently due to financial difficulties; today the limit is 2,000. The most famous members of the Athenaeum include Rudyard Kipling , Charles Darwin , Lord Palmerston , Walter Scott , William Makepeace Thackeray , Cecil Rhodes , Winston Churchill, and Samuel Edwards . After the club rented a building at Carlton Gardens for its female guests in 1936 and added a women's wing to the clubhouse in 1961, women have been accepted as members since 2002.
Clubhouse
Built by Decimus Burton in a classicist style, the clubhouse is at 107 Pall Mall . The main facade facing Waterloo Place is adorned with a Doric portico with pairs of columns and a golden statue of Athena on the ledge, created by Edward Hodges Baily . A blue and white bas-relief frieze based on the Parthenon runs under the roof balustrade .
Web links
Individual evidence
Coordinates: 51 ° 30 ′ 26 " N , 0 ° 7 ′ 55" W.