Almack's
Almack's Assembly Rooms was one of the first clubs in London that welcomed both men and women. It was one of a limited number of upper class mixed-sex public social venues in the British capital in an era when the most important venues for the hectic social season were the grand houses of the aristocracy.
Almack's opened in King Street, St. James, in London, on 20 February 1765.
Traditionally, it is said to have been established by William Macall who, to avoid the onus of a Scottish name, then considered foreign and uncouth, reversed the syllables. (His Almack's Coffee House, opened at the same time, was bought in 1774 to become the gentlemen's club, Brooks's.) However, Chancellor points out that Almack is as legitimate and common a name as Macall, and may easily have been the man's actual family name.[1]
Ambiguous History
Some confusion arises from attempting to assign to one time the varying characteristics of almost a century of existence.
Almack's Assembly Rooms first opened in purposeful rivalry to Mrs. Cornelys' establishment, whose masqued balls were becoming notorious. At first it was described as a "female Brook's"--that is, a gambling club to which women were admitted, though it was always unisex. A unique characteristic of this phase of Almack's was that male members proposed and elected the female members, and women proposed and elected the male members. At this time, like Almack's other establishments, it was meant to make money as what we would call a casino. It was, like any male club, open any night, and gambling is all that went on, besides a little supper served by Mr. and Mrs. Almack, the latter of whom poured tea in a fashionable sack gown.
As Horace Walpole wrote in 1770, "There is a new Institution that begins to make, and if it proceeds will make, considerable noise. It is a club of both sexes to be erected at Almack's, on the model of that of the men at White's. Mrs Fitzroy, Lady Pembroke, Mrs Meynell, Lady Molyneux, Miss Pelham and Miss Lloyd are the foundresses. I am ashamed to say I am of so young and fashionable society; but as they are people I live with, I choose to be idle rather than morose. I can go to a young supper without forgetting how much sand is run out of the hour-glass." [2]
This first phase of Almack's suffered from competition from The Pantheon or "Winter Ranelagh" from 1772 until it burned down twenty years later.[3] Play seems to have fallen off, as Almack's entered its second phase some time after 1800.
The Classic Almack's
Now Almack's Assembly Rooms became governed by a select committee of the most influential and exclusive ladies of the ton, known as the Lady Patronesses of Almacks. At different periods in the club's long history, there were six or seven of them.
In 1814, they were:
- Anne Stewart, Marchioness of Londonderry, better known as Viscountess of Castlereagh.
- Sarah Villiers, Countess of Jersey (not the Regent's old mistress, but her daughter-in-law)
- Emily, Lady Cowper (later married Lord Palmerston)
- Lady Sefton
- Mrs. Drummond Burrel (whose husband, a notable dandy, became Baron Gwydyr after 1816, and Lord Willoughby de Eresby after 18)
- Countess de Lieven (wife of the Russian ambassador, raised to princely rank only after leaving England)
- Countess Esterhazy (wife of the Austrian ambassador; again, raised to a princedom afterward)
These "fair arbiters" created a temple of exclusivism for the balls held on Wednesday nights (the only activity of the club) by allowing only those of whom they approved to buy the non-transferrable annual vouchers, costing ten guineas (a guinea being a bit more than a pound sterling). Holding that voucher became the difference between society and Society. To not have it might mean simply that one had not applied. To lose one's voucher, though, meant that one had been tried and found wanting, a social disaster for those dedicated to their place in the ton.
The Lady Patronesses met every Monday night during the London social season (approximately April to August) to decide who, if anyone, might need to be removed for recent déclassé behavior, and whom they might wish to add to the august membership. Their reign lasted until 1824 or so when exclusivity and strictness of rules both dropped off.
Money was never a key to being a member of Almack's. It existed to exclude the nouveau riche, the mushroom "cits" of England. Title was a recommendation, though breeding and behavior were more important. Only about three-quarters of the hereditary nobility passed muster. Yet a penniless Irish poet like Thomas Moore could be adjudged to have the right address, the right style, the right ton, to make him a valued member.[4]
To avoid any suggestion of impropriety, dances were limited to the country dances or contredanses, at that time danced with a good deal of energy. (Think Scotch reel or Virginia reel, as opposed to the now-passé court minuets.) This changed some time after the declaration of the Regency, when first the quadrille and then the lively waltz (rather more what we think of as a polka) were introduced. According to Raikes, these were first danced at Almacks in 1813, to Gronow in 1815, and to Dancing in the Badminton Library, 1816. In any case, the introduction of the quadrille is strongly associated with Lady Jersey, and the waltz definitely linked to Lady de Lieven.[6]
The club took pains not to resemble the expensive private balls by avoiding sumptuous repasts. Refreshments in the supper rooms, described by various authors who were never there as shriveled and stale, in fact consisted of thinly-sliced bread (which has to be a day old to be sliced that thin) with fresh butter, and dry cake (dry meaning unfrosted, without icing, not stale), probably what we know as pound cake. To avoid the drunkenness rampant in society, where many noblemen prided themselves on drinking four or five bottles of port a day, they served only tea and lemonade in the supper rooms.[7]
People came to Almack's to see and be seen, to assert their claim to being of the highest social rank, and to network with others of the caste. Secondarily, for gentlemen seeking brides of suitable ton, it served as one of the marriage marts of Society. By 1790, being a debutante, one presented at court, carried very little weight, as the King's court was considered rather fusty. Instead, mothers sought éclat for a daughter newly presented to society by wangling vouchers at Almack's.[8]
The Physical Almack's
The original building was constructed in the Palladian style. The ballroom, in one Life in London print, c. 1821 (at beginning of article), shows tall arch-topped windows with simple draperies, with panels between of delicate decoration in the style of Robert Adam. [9] A Cruikshank print shows a different crystal chandelier, a carpeted floor, and the walls hung with gigantic mirrors and paintings. [10]
Besides the dancing rooms and the supper rooms, some historians say the later Almack's also provided gaming rooms for those who preferred cards to dancing.{citation?}
In 1871, the new owner of the Assembly Rooms renamed them in his own honour as Willis's Rooms.
A high-rise office building now bears a brass plaque commemorating the existence of Almack's on that spot.
Almack's in the Media
Almack's, in its heyday, might appear or be mentioned in any of the "silver fork novels of the time. These notably included Almack's by Marianne Spencer Hudson (1827) and Almack's Revisited by Charles White (1828).
Almack’s and its patronesses also appear frequently in the Regency romances of Georgette Heyer (e.g. Friday's Child) and many other authors of the genre.
Notes
- ^ Chancellor, p.235: "It is generally believed that his original name was Macall and that he changed it, by a process of inversion, to Almack, when he first started as club proprietor, on account of the odium into which anything Scottish had fallen at this period (about the middle) of the eighteenth century. But this is based a good deal on conjecture, and in Notes and Queries a number of letters and other communications on the subject leave the matter not much clearer than it was before. ... Personally I am inclined to think that no such change was ever attempted. Almack is as common a name as Macall, although neither is frequently met with; and surely if a man had wanted to hide his origin he could have done so more skilfully and more successfully than by merely playing a conjuring trick with the letters of his name. "
- ^ Chancellor, p. 205-6
- ^ Chancellor, p. 206-7
- ^ Moers
- ^ Chancellor, p.212
- ^ Chancellor, p.212
- ^ Moers
- ^ Moers
- ^ Margetson
- ^ Chancellor
References
- Almack's at Britain Express
- E. Beresford Chancellor, M.A.; Memorials of St James's Street together with the Annals of Almack's; London, 1922
- Christopher Hibbert; London, the Biography of a City; 1969; William Morrow, NY
- Stella Margetson; Regency London; 1971; Prawger Publishers, Inc. NY
- Ellen Moers; The Dandy: Brummell to Beerbohm; 1960; The Viking Press, Inc., NY (an excellent text on exclusivism and the ton)