Crockford's (club)

Crockford's, the popular name for William Crockford's St James's Club was a London gentlemen's club, now dissolved. It was established in 1823,^[1] closed in 1845, re-founded in 1928 and closed in 1970. One of London's older clubs, it was centred on gambling and maintained a somewhat raffish and raucous reputation. It was founded by William Crockford who employed Benjamin Wyatt and Philip Wyatt to construct the city's most opulent palace of gentlemanly pleasure, which opened in November 1827.^[2] and he employed two of London's finest chefs of the time, Louis Eustache Ude and then Charles Elmé Francatelli to feed its members, food and drink being supplied free after midnight.^[3]

From 1823, the club leased 50 St. James's Street, and then nos. 51–53, which enabled Crockford to pull down all four houses and build his palatial club on the site. After the club's closure, this continued to be used as a clubhouse, at first briefly by the short-lived Military, Naval and County Service Club, and then between 1874 and 1976 it was home to the Devonshire Club.

The current Crockfords, though using much of the "Crocky" imagery and high-end reputation, has no connection with the original club and operates from an entirely different building at nearby 30 Curzon Street.

^ See, for example, the letter from the Secretary of the St James's Club dated 25 July 1825 to William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–77), now in the Fox Talbot Collection, British Library, London, Collection no. 21551, Collection no. historic: LA25(MW)-41. http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/letters/transcriptName.php?bcode=Read-R&pageNumber=0&pageTotal=1
^ See "Berkshire Chronicle", 8 February 1828, p. 4 , "Chronology of the Principal Events during the Year 1827" entry for 12 November: "About this time Crockford's new Hell opens",
^ "The most fashionable club before the establishment of the Coventry [House Club] was Crockford's, and I was elected to it immediately after being returned for Parliament [in 1842]. It was admirably kept. Francatelli, the cook, was unequalled; there was a first-rate supper, gratis, with the best champagne for those who hungered and thirsted after midnight; and in a little room off the supper-room was the gambling table, at which too many an ardent admirer of hazard had lost all his fortune." Sir William Gregory, K.C.M.G, Edited by Lady Gregory, An Autobiography, London: John Murray 1894, pp. 82–82.

[1] See, for example, the letter from the Secretary of the St James's Club dated 25 July 1825 to William Henry Fox Talbot (1800–77), now in the Fox Talbot Collection, British Library, London, Collection no. 21551, Collection no. historic: LA25(MW)-41. http://foxtalbot.dmu.ac.uk/letters/transcriptName.php?bcode=Read-R&pageNumber=0&pageTotal=1

[2] See "Berkshire Chronicle", 8 February 1828, p. 4 , "Chronology of the Principal Events during the Year 1827" entry for 12 November: "About this time Crockford's new Hell opens",

[3] "The most fashionable club before the establishment of the Coventry [House Club] was Crockford's, and I was elected to it immediately after being returned for Parliament [in 1842]. It was admirably kept. Francatelli, the cook, was unequalled; there was a first-rate supper, gratis, with the best champagne for those who hungered and thirsted after midnight; and in a little room off the supper-room was the gambling table, at which too many an ardent admirer of hazard had lost all his fortune." Sir William Gregory, K.C.M.G, Edited by Lady Gregory, An Autobiography, London: John Murray 1894, pp. 82–82.

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