Athenaeum Club

Shelby is back in town, and so we went to dinner at the club.  Originally this was supposed to be at the Oxford and Cambridge club, but when we got there, it was closed for the summer break.  On the door was a list of “reciprocal” clubs, which are basically clubs that let you use the facilities if you are a member of the Oxford and Cambridge club.  There is a long list of clubs around the world that are reciprocal to the O and C, but during the summer break, apparently there are a bunch of local London clubs that are temporarily reciprocal.  This is cool, because you don’t normally get to go to these, and many are pretty interesting and historically significant.  So, tonight we picked another Pall Mall area club from the list: the Athenaeum.  This turned out to be a good, if totally random call.  The building is really neat, done in Neoclassical and dates to 1824.  It’s right around the corner from the The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge, and actually pretty close to the O and C too.  It’s a bit nicer inside than our club, if also a bit smaller, with lots of classical statues everywhere.  Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Franz Liszt, Winston Churchill, Arthur Conan Doyle, Joseph Conrad, Rudyard Kipling, WB Yeats, and Richard Wagner were all members here.  Apparently the queen mother liked to have get togethers here back before she died.  This is totally NOT the sort of place they let recently emigrated Americans into, unlike the O and C which is pretty much for graduates with a pulse.  You’ve got to be a hot shot Londoner or a serious arts player to get in here, so it was cool to get the opportunity.  We got a look at their library, which is super cool, if quite a bit smaller than ours.  It has the two story ladder and catwalk deal that you see in movies, and so it has floor to ceiling books, a really cool effect.

 

library – someday I’ll have one of these!

 

The porter who showed us around the club picked out early on that we were from O and C, and kept making a big deal about how much more exclusive this club was than ours while he was proudly showing us around, which was super funny.  Having people condescend to you for being lower status than they are is the TOTAL English experience, and it’s even more authentic/hilarious coming from a waiter with a goofy accent.  Funny funny place, London.  The dining room was typical of London clubs: big room with polished wood tables, candles, waiters everywhere, big pictures of severe looking old dudes on the wall, etc.  Although, this place actually has an outdoor patio for summer dining, which is really good since these places all want you to wear a jacket and tie while you eat.  I had dover sole, and Shelby had calves liver, which I thought was pretty burly of her.  She told me all about her ill fated move to Dallas (lasted only two weeks) and some drama with a dude she’s been seeing.  I feel a bit bad that her big move didn’t work out, but I’m mostly glad that she’s back, it’s nice having the Shelbs around.   After dinner we went up to the lounge and had a few drinks.

 

lounge – we sat waaaay down at the far end

Shelby found a book all about London clubs and proceeded to read the stories out loud in a really crappy fake pretentious English accent.  I kept shushing her and laughing while scarfing down a tasty 1970’s vintage Calvados.  Afterward, we walked our middle classes asses back to the tube station and went our separate ways home.