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Herbert
Buckmaster in nearby Clifford Street. Buck's had by then replaced the Bachelors' as the young man's club. But the Drones Club's swimming pool, complete with its notorious ropes and rings, was taken from the Bath Club, also in Dover Street, at Number 34, amongst whose founders was one of Wodehouse's many uncles. Tuppy Glossop's mean trick on Bertie of looping back the last ring "causing me to plunge into the swimming b. in the full soup and fish" (i.e., full evening dress) was based on fact – it happened all the time in the Bath Club pool.
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Norman explained that Dover Street was the street of new clubs in the 1920s and 30s. So here
Wodehouse found the ideal site for the fictional Drones Club, originally based on the real Bachelors' Club, but subsequently the source of the Drones was transferred to Buck's Club, founded in 1919 by
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The Bath Club was a very elegant club just down the street from
Claridge's. Unusually for London clubs It had a ladies' section with an elegant drawing room for afternoon tea. At the ground floor level there was a large dining room with paintings very like Canaletto's on the walls.
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A consortium of members acquired control of the club and then proceeded to sell the lease. The other members could do nothing to stop it. The club was closed in 1981 with members being offered the opportunity to join either the Naval and
Military Club or the Carlton Club.
125:, which eventually agreed to a full merger in 1950 under the name of the Bath Club, retaining the Conservative Club's St James's Street club house until 1959. It subsequently moved to 43
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The club also had its own squash courts, unusual for a central London location and the Bath Club Cup was an annual fixture for London squash players.
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Upstairs there was a lounge area with backgammon and card tables and separately a bar. Off the lounge area was a full sized snooker table.
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The club was famous for its annual mixed backgammon
Tournaments the last of which was held in May 1980.
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The
Flyfishers Club shared part of the Bath Club premises during the last few years of the club's life
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in 1941, and the club never wholly recovered. After the bombing, it was housed by the struggling
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On the evening of March 17, 1899 the Bath Club was the venue of a popular exhibition of
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The
Chicago Daily News Almanac and Yearbook (Chicago Daily News Company, 1924), p. 632
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was a noted feature, and it is thought that the swimming pool of the fictional
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learned to swim. It was one of the few gentleman's clubs that admitted women.
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Norman Murphy's talk at
Wodehouse Week 2007 (The PGW Society UK)
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249:"Mark Twain: A Biography, by Albert Bigelow Paine (Chapter257)"
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56:(also on Dover Street) was based on this. It is also where
106:, travelled to the United States and unexpectedly won the
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in the 20th century. It was established in 1894 at 34
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95:, thus becoming one of the first places where
108:American Squash Racquets Singles Championship
76:stayed here as well when he visited London.
113:The club building was hit by bombs during
275:Marconi: The Man Who Networked the World.
213:Alexander-Sinclair, Ian (report) (2007).
99:had been exhibited in the Western world.
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102:In 1924 a sporting member of the club,
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72:stayed here when he visited London.
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159:List of London's gentlemen's clubs
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129:, and it finally closed in 1981.
277:Oxford University Press. p. 195.
181:The gentlemen's clubs of London
353:1894 establishments in England
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16:Former London gentlemen's club
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93:Edward William Barton-Wright
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348:Gentlemen's clubs in London
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297:The Encyclopedia of Sports
215:"Bertie Wooster's Mayfair"
178:Lejeune, Anthony (2012).
66:Sir Henry "Chips" Channon
184:. Stacey International.
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85:Captain Alfred Hutton
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324:51.50881°N 0.14273°W
225:on 27 September 2007
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295:Frank Grant Menke,
273:Raboy, Marc. 2016.
329:51.50881; -0.14273
97:Asian martial arts
81:historical fencing
62:Queen Elizabeth II
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25:74 St James Street
191:978-1-906768-20-1
123:St James's Street
119:Conservative Club
74:Guglielmo Marconi
58:Princess Margaret
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42:gentlemen's club
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257:. Retrieved
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227:. Retrieved
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127:Brook Street
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46:Dover Street
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54:Drones Club
342:Categories
312:51°30′32″N
83:styles by
70:Mark Twain
315:0°08′34″W
229:3 January
200:918365525
115:the Blitz
31:Bath Club
153:See also
37:-themed
259:26 July
89:jujutsu
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121:at 74
48:. Its
39:London
35:sports
33:was a
165:Notes
261:2007
231:2009
196:OCLC
186:ISBN
60:and
29:The
91:by
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
