Travelers Club
The Travelers Club is a renowned London club that opened in 1819 a. a. was founded by Lord Castlereagh . The Los Angeles Times once called it "the quintessential English gentleman's club".
purpose
The club unites British people with extensive travel experience abroad and, conversely, welcomes distinguished foreign visitors to exchange ideas. Originally, the admission requirement was that the person in question had traveled abroad at least once and was 500 miles as the crow flies from London - a criterion that was by no means a matter of course for the upper class at the time the club was founded. Usually, however, completing the so-called Grand Tour was sufficient . Today, however, it is expected, at least informally, that the candidate can designate at least four countries he has visited.
At times, however, the club has also been the scene of informal international negotiations, such as in 2003 between Great Britain and Libya .
Members
Only those who are proposed by two members and then supported by five others are accepted as full members of the Travelers Club. For the associate membership - which is now also open to women - the support of a member who is already a member of the club is sufficient . The upper limit is currently 1200 members.
Famous travelers, outstanding researchers, explorers and travel writers, but also diplomats, are strongly represented in the Travelers Club. Honorary members include representatives of the British and foreign royal families, as well as the acting Foreign Minister and various ambassadors accredited in London. Its most famous members included the Duke of Wellington , Lord Russell , Arthur Balfour , Stanley Baldwin , Francis Beaufort , Graham Greene , Jules Verne , William Makepeace Thackeray , Edmund Hillary and Douglas Hurd .
Clubhouse
The seat was initially at 12 Waterloo Place. In 1821 the company moved to 49 Pall Mall in a building that had previously housed Brooks's Club . After this had become too small, Sir Charles Barry , who became famous as the architect of the Houses of Parliament , was finally commissioned in 1826 to build a new building at 106 Pall Mall, near Carlton Gardens . It takes up the formal language of the Italian Renaissance palazzo and was completed in 1832, the tower not until 1842. The library is also famous with an extensive collection of travel literature and the cast of a Greek temple frieze.
literature
- John Martin Robinson: The Travelers Club: a bicentennial history, 1819-2019 , London: Libanus Press for The Travelers Club 2018, ISBN 978-0-948021-93-0