Reform Club
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Reform_Club._Upper_level_of_the_saloon._From_London_Interiors_(1841).jpg
The Reform Club is a private gentlemen's club situated on the south side of Pall Mall (at number 104), in central London. (It has admitted ladies since the 1960s.)
It was founded by Whig members of both Houses of Parliament around the time the Reform Act of 1832 was being debated. It was intended to be a bastion of liberal and progressive thought.
The building, like its neighbour the Travellers Club, was designed by Sir Charles Barry and opened in 1841.
Its members have included:
- Hilaire Belloc
- Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
- E. M. Forster
- Henry James
- Stella Rimington
- William Makepeace Thackeray
- H. G. Wells
It is used fictitiously in Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days, the protagonist of which is a member of the Reform Club who sets out to circumnavigate the world on a bet from his fellow members, beginning and ending at the club.
Michael Palin, in imitation of his fictional predecessor, also began and ended his televised journey around the world in eighty days at the Reform Club.