Reform Club

The Reform Club is a private ‘gentleman’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 (Liberal Party) members of both Houses of Parliament around the time the Reform Act 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 where the members give Phileas Fogg the challenge, and from where Phileas starts his journey and finishes his journey.

It is also where Michael Palin began and ended his televised journey around the world in 80 days.