Almack's Assembly Rooms

Dancing the Quadrille at Almack's

For any reader or author of the Regency romance set in London, the Almack's Assembly Rooms play a key role. Young misses coveted invitations to Almack's, where highly eligible young gentlemen awaited. Matches were made under the dragon eyes of society patronesses. While today's novels recreate the experience to serve the story, the scenes depicted have a basis in actual history.

From the "Survey of London", we have this description of how Almack's was originally formed and the purpose of the club[1]:

The Ladies' Club or Coterie

From 1769 to 1771 Almack provided accommodation for a club composed of members of both sexes. The club first met on 17 December 1769 and soon attracted a great deal of attention. On 6 May 1770 Horace Walpole recorded that 'There is a new institution that begins to make, and if it proceeds, will make a considerable noise. It is a club of both sexes to be erected at Almac's, on the model of that of the men of White's. Mrs. Fitzroy, Lady Pembroke, Mrs. Meynell, Lady Molyneux, Miss Pelham, and Miss Loyd, are the foundresses. I am ashamed to say I am of so young and fashionable a society.' The most important rules were that all members were admitted by ballot and 'the ladies shall ballot for men, and men for ladies'; thus 'no lady can exclude a lady, or gentleman a gentleman'. The subscription was five guineas; dinner was to be on the table at halfpast four in the afternoon, price eight shillings 'exclusive of the wine, which the men are to pay'. Members met 'every morning, either to play cards, chat, or do whatever else they please. An ordinary is provided for as many as choose to dine, and a supper to be constantly on the table by eleven at night; after supper they play loo. . . .'

By September 1770 this very exclusive club possessed 123 members, including five dukes. It is not certain in which of Almack's two houses in Pall Mall it met; Mrs. Elizabeth Harris placed it at Boodle's (No. 50) but an undated letter of the Hon. Mrs. Boscawen says that it met 'for the present, at certain rooms of Almack's, who for another year is to provide a private house . .,' By December 1771 it had moved to the house in Albemarle Street which had in 1764 been used by Thomas Wildman to accommodate a political club formed in opposition to the Earl of Bute (see page 330n.). It remained there under the management of Robert Sutton until 1775, when it moved to a house in Arlington Street under the management of James Cullen of Greek Street, Soho, upholsterer. The last meeting of the club was held on 4 December 1777. Cullen was left heavily in debt and the Chancery suit which he subsequently brought against certain members contains valuable information about the way in which such shortlived proprietary clubs were managed.

Other Resources for Almack's

• Wikipedia Entry