Liverpool Athenaeum
Encyclopedia
The Athenaeum originated as a gentlemen's club
Gentlemen's club
A gentlemen's club is a members-only private club of a type originally set up by and for British upper class men in the eighteenth century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late nineteenth century. Today, some are more open about the gender and social status of...

 in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, England. It has been in continuous use since the end of the 18th century. The club was founded to ensure the up-to-date provision of newspapers and pamphlets, and to create a library for the use of the merchants and professional men in the city. The original building was demolished, and replaced by a new building nearby, in 1924. The members of the club are known as Proprietors, and they include both men and women. The building contains a large library, and it is also used by the Proprietors for social functions. It can be hired for use by outside individuals and organisations.

History

The club was founded on 22 November 1797. Towards this date, Liverpool had been growing rapidly as a commercial centre. The merchants and other professionals in the city needed a supply of up-to-date news. This was usually provided by newspapers and periodicals in coffee houses, but these were frequently overcrowded. There was also a need for a library because the existing library, founded in 1758, was not considered to be adequate. The founders of the club produced a prospectus entitled Outlines of a Plan for a Library and Newsroom, which proposed "to procure a regular supply of newspapers, both town and country, all the periodical publications of any value, and all the pamphlets that have reference to subjects of local or general polity or commerce". They commissioned the local architect John Foster
John Foster (architect)
John Foster, Junior was an English architect.-Biography:Foster studied under Jeffry Wyatt in London and in 1809 travelled in the eastern Mediterranean. During 1810-11 he accompanied C. R. Cockerell and the German archaeologists Haller and Linckh in their excavation of the temples at Aegina and...

 to design a building for them in Church Street. This opened on 1 January 1799, and its library opened on 1 May 1800. The early members of the club included "entrepreneurs, slavery-abolitionists, free-thinkers, and political radicals, who regarded themselves as the commercial and intellectual champions of Liverpool".

At this time there were gentlemen's clubs in London, but these were more policial in nature, or were institutions for gambling. The opening of the Liverpool Athenaeum preceded the club of the same name
Athenaeum Club, London
The Athenaeum Club, usually just referred to as the Athenaeum, is a notable London club with its Clubhouse located at 107 Pall Mall, London, England, at the corner of Waterloo Place....

 in London by 27 years. The members of the Liverpool club arranged for express riders, messengers, and the regular coaches serving the city, to bring them all the latest news, information, and ideas. In addition to books, the library gathered a collection that included navigation charts, maps and globes. It also obtained items from the private library of one of its founder members, William Roscoe
William Roscoe
William Roscoe , was an English historian and miscellaneous writer.-Life:He was born in Liverpool, where his father, a market gardener, kept a public house called the Bowling Green at Mount Pleasant. Roscoe left school at the age of twelve, having learned all that his schoolmaster could teach...

. In time the library grew into "one of the world's most highly regarded private literary collections".

The members are known as Proprietors. Notable Proprietors have included, in addition to William Roscoe; William Duncan
William Henry Duncan
William Henry Duncan , also known as Doctor Duncan, was an English Doctor who worked in Liverpool as its first Medical Officer of Health and also Britain's first Chief Medical Officer.....

, the first Medical Officer for Health
Medical Officer for Health
The Medical Officer for Health is a title usually given to the head of the health department at a municipal level.In the United Kingdom, the municipal position was an elected head of the local board of health, however the term has also been used to refer to the Chief Medical Officer...

 in Britain, Sir Ronald Ross
Ronald Ross
Sir Ronald Ross KCB FRS was a British doctor who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria. He was the first Indian-born person to win a Nobel Prize...

, winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...

 in 1902, Sir Charles Sherrington
Charles Scott Sherrington
Sir Charles Scott Sherrington, OM, GBE, PRS was an English neurophysiologist, histologist, bacteriologist, and a pathologist, Nobel laureate and president of the Royal Society in the early 1920s...

, joint winner of the same award in 1932, the local architect Sir James Picton
James Picton
Sir James Allanson Picton was an English antiquary and architect who played a large part in the public life of Liverpool. He took a particular interest in the establishment of public libraries.-Biography:...

, and the Rt Revd Francis Chavasse, the second Bishop of Liverpool
Bishop of Liverpool
The Bishop of Liverpool is the Ordinary of the Church of England Diocese of Liverpool in the Province of York.The diocese stretches from Southport in the north, to Widnes in the south, and from the River Mersey to Wigan in the east. Its see is in the City of Liverpool at the Cathedral Church of...

. In the 1920s, the Corporation of Liverpool decided to widen Church Street to accommodate a new tram system, and this involved the demolition of the club's building. A new building for the club, designed by Harold Dod, was constructed in Church Alley, between Church Street and School Lane, and was opened in 1924.

Architecture and contents

The club occupies three storeys above a row of shops in Church Alley. Its architectural style is described as "Chaste American classicism, with a strong French accent". The ground floor entrance has a keystone
Keystone (architecture)
A keystone is the wedge-shaped stone piece at the apex of a masonry vault or arch, which is the final piece placed during construction and locks all the stones into position, allowing the arch to bear weight. This makes a keystone very important structurally...

 depicting the head of the Greek goddess Athena
Athena
In Greek mythology, Athena, Athenê, or Athene , also referred to as Pallas Athena/Athene , is the goddess of wisdom, courage, inspiration, civilization, warfare, strength, strategy, the arts, crafts, justice, and skill. Minerva, Athena's Roman incarnation, embodies similar attributes. Athena is...

. Inside the entrance, an elliptical staircase leads up to the club's premises. The largest rooms are the Newsroom, the Dining Room, and the Library, and in addition there are smaller meeting rooms. The Library is on the second floor, and is decorated in Greek Revival
Greek Revival architecture
The Greek Revival was an architectural movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries, predominantly in Northern Europe and the United States. A product of Hellenism, it may be looked upon as the last phase in the development of Neoclassical architecture...

 style. It has a shallow segmental vaulted ceiling, and contains three bays
Bay (architecture)
A bay is a unit of form in architecture. This unit is defined as the zone between the outer edges of an engaged column, pilaster, or post; or within a window frame, doorframe, or vertical 'bas relief' wall form.-Defining elements:...

 that are separated by pairs of columns. In the Library are three large paintings by Edward Halliday depicting events in Greek mythology
Greek mythology
Greek mythology is the body of myths and legends belonging to the ancient Greeks, concerning their gods and heroes, the nature of the world, and the origins and significance of their own cult and ritual practices. They were a part of religion in ancient Greece...

 involving Athena.

Present day

The Athenaeum continues to function as a club, and its Proprietors include men and women. The membership is limited to 500 people. There is a grade of associate membership for certain categories of people, including retired people aged over 60, and those living more than 25 miles from the club. New Proprietors have to be proposed and seconded by existing Proprietors before they are admitted. The Library contains over 60,000 items, which include books, maps and charts, drawings of Liverpool buildings in the 19th century, and pencil sketches of former Liverpool personalities. The club is open for the use of Proprietors each weekday. A social programme is arranged, including dinners and other meals with speakers. There are special interest groups for history, literature, music, and for wine tasting. The building may be hired for use by Proprietors, or by outside individuals and groups. Both the Library and the Newsroom are licensed for civil ceremonies
Civil ceremony
A civil registrar ceremony is a non-religious legal marriage ceremony performed by a government official or functionary. In the UK, this person is normally called a registrar...

.
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