Carlton Club

The Carlton Club stands in St James’s, a quiet street of Georgian façades in the heart of Westminster. Founded in 1832 by Tory peers and MPs after their defeat over the First Reform Act, it became the Conservative Party’s first headquarters. The club moved through several buildings before settling at 69 St James’s Street in 1940, after wartime bombing destroyed its Pall Mall home. Its present Georgian clubhouse is Grade II* listed and holds two elegant dining rooms and a collection of political portraits from the 18th century. The walls of the Disraeli and Macmillan rooms still contain fragments of the original White’s Club building. The club is famous for the 1922 Carlton Club meeting when Conservative MPs voted to end David Lloyd George’s coalition. Speeches by Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin persuaded the party to form a purely Conservative government. In 1940 a Luftwaffe bomb wrecked the Pall Mall building but left the new St James’s Street premises untouched. The IRA bombed the club again in 1990, injuring more than twenty people. More recently, events at the club contributed to the resignation of Prime Minister Boris Johnson in 2022. Visitors find a calm atmosphere of panelled rooms and polished woodwork. Two dining rooms serve members, while walls display portraits of Disraeli, Macmillan and earlier figures. The entrance holds a war memorial plaque from the old clubhouse, and the Macmillan Room’s windows look onto the same Pall Mall street where the club began. The building’s fabric includes stones from White’s, one of London’s oldest clubs, and its Grade II* listing marks its architectural importance.