Pall Mall, London

This article is about the London street. For other uses, see Pall Mall (disambiguation).

East view of Pall Mall in 2009

A View of St James's Palace, Pall Mall etc by Thomas Bowles, published 1763. This view looks east. The gatehouse of St James's Palace is on the right.

Pall Mall /ˌpæl ˈmæl/ is a street in the City of Westminster, London, and parallel to The Mall, from St. James's Street across Waterloo Place to the Haymarket; while Pall Mall East continues into Trafalgar Square. The street is a major thoroughfare in the St James's area of London, and a section of the regional A4 road. The name of the street is derived from "pall mall", a mallet-and-ball game that was played there during the 17th century.

History and topography

Pall Mall is best known for being the home of various gentlemen's clubs built in the 19th and early 20th centuries. These include the Athenaeum, the Travellers Club, the Army and Navy Club, the Reform Club, the United Service Club (now occupied by the Institute of Directors), the Oxford and Cambridge Club and the Royal Automobile Club.

100 Pall Mall, location of the National Gallery between 1824 and 1834

It was also once the centre of the fine art scene in London; in 1814 the Royal Academy, the National Gallery and Christie's auction house were all here, but none of them stayed for long.

The freehold of nearly all of the southern side of the Pall Mall has belonged to the Crown for several hundred years, and is still owned by the Crown Estate. St. James's Palace is on the south side of the street at the western end. Marlborough House, which was once a royal residence, is next to it to the east, opening off a courtyard just to the south of the street. The Prince Regent's Carlton House once stood at the eastern end of the street. Pall Mall was also once the home of the War Office, with which it became synonymous (just as Whitehall refers to the administrative centre of the UK government). The War Office was accommodated in a complex of buildings based on the ducal mansion of Cumberland House which was designed by Matthew Brettingham and Robert Adam.

There were at least two other architecturally important ducal residences in the street, Schomberg House, and Buckingham House, the London residence of the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos which was rebuilt for them by Sir John Soane (not to be confused with the Buckingham House which became Buckingham Palace). Buckingham House was demolished in 1908 to make way for the Royal Automobile Club.

The former branch of the Midland Bank in Pall Mall was designed by Sir Edwin Lutyens.

Popular culture

George Dance the Younger's Shakespeare Gallery building at 52 Pall Mall (built 1788, demolished 1868–1869), shown in 1851 after its purchase by the British Institution.

Pall Mall is also one of the streets on the English version of the Monopoly board.

See also

• List of London's gentlemen's clubs
• The Diogenes Club, a fictional club located in Pall Mall

External links

• Introductory page from the Survey of London – see also here for the Survey of London's chapters on each of the principal buildings in the street, and here for its diagrams showing the north and south sides in 1814 and the south side in 1960.
• Pall Mall on TourUK
• Panoramic photograph of Pall Mall
• 19th Century Gentleman's Clubs on Pall Mall (including photographs)
• The Institute of Directors' 116 Pall Mall