Home House Club, Portman Square

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At the north west corner of Portman Square, where it meets the southern end of Gloucester Place are three 18th Century town houses, which have been converted into a luxurious private members club.

The Home House Club (pronounced "hume", after the Scottish / Berwickshire aristocratic clan, to whom at least one British Prime Minister Sir Alec Douglas-Home was a related) occupies Numbers 21, 20 and 19 Portman Square. The entrance to Number 21 is on the western, Gloucester Place side of the block, and Numbers 20 and 19 are on the main Portman Square façade.

This real life club, may have influenced the fragment of cyberpunk literary author William Gibson's next novel, mentioning as it does the character of Inchmale, who appeared in Spook Country

See some discussion on the official William Gibson board discussion forum
Inchmale's club in Portman Square, which speculates on a fragment of text (which may, or may not actually end up in a novel) released by the author on his blog on 1st January 2009.

CABINET (HAPPY NEW YEAR) posted 12:09 AM

Inchmale's club, in Portman Square, was called Cabinet. It was a peculiarly narrow place, apparently occupying half of the vertical volume of a townhouse whose expensively forgettable façade reminded her of a sleeping face.

[...]

Apart from a futuristic architect designed House bar at Number 21,

Zaha_Hadid_designed_bar_Home_House_Club_300.jpg

the interior decoration evokes 18th Century aristocratic opulence, including

Anthony Blunt Bedroom

Named after a former resident of House No 20 who had an apartment here after the Second World War during his tenure as Master of the Queen's Art Collection.

[...]

Anthony_Blunt_bedroom_Home_House_Club_300.jpg

This blurb conveniently forgets to mention Anthony Blunt's espionage career as a KGB spook, linked to the notorious Philby, Maclean and Burgess spy scandals, which rocked the British intelligence services in the 1950s and 1960s, and which was covered up by the establishment for many years, and which led to the stripping of his knighthood, when it was eventually made public. The treachery of the Cambridge Five spy ring has been hugely influential on British spy fiction, drama, tv and films.

Home_House_Club_Portman_Square_map.gif

Latitude: N51:30:59 (51.516433)
Longitude: W0:09:24 (-0.156541)

hhc3_300.jpg

hhc4_300.jpg

More images of 21, 20, 19 Portman Square:


hhc1_300.jpg

hhc2_300.jpg

hhc5_300.jpg

hhc6_300.jpg

4 Comments

Could you kindly let me know how one goes about obtaining membership?
Thank you
Valerie Blondeau

The pictures of the outside are dreadful. I just saw their website and it is amazing (the website - The club looks great, too... Zaha Hadid designed one of their bars). Google it. This review does not say much other than offer a helpful pronounciation guide to the name.

@ H Figi - the photos of the outside are completely accurate - what do you expect from an 18th Century listed building ?

There are already links in the article above to the Home House Club website (which has been re-launched with hard to navigate javascript pop-ups ) , including the bar, so there is no need to "Google it"

See some more detailed discussion on the official William Gibson board discussion forum
Inchmale's club in Portman Square

as this club appears to have influenced the latest novel in progress by cyberpunk author William Gibson, due to be published next year as Zero History

The new blurb for the Antony Blunt bedroom (lurking in the hard to read and navigate flash /javascript pop up laden new website design) now says:

Situated on the 3rd floor overlooking the garden, the bedroom has a mahogany bed and relaxing chaise longue.

The Victorian bathroom is unusually large with a fabulous double monastery basin which is set in black marble and surrounded with slate.

The infamous Anthony Blunt (Director of the Courtauld Institute from 1947 – 1974), used this room as his principle residence during his tenure as Master of the Queen's Art Collection. A secret listening device was concealed by MI5 in the connecting wall between Nos 20 and 21!

Bedroom dimensions: 6.5m x 5.5m
Bathroom dimensions: 4.4m x 3.6m

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- documenting and analysing William Gibson's current novel in progress, with some London / UK locations already.

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This documents and analyses William Gibson's novel Spook Country which has some London locations, and from which this London CyberPunk Tourist Guide was spawned.

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Recent Comments

  • Memetic Engineer: The new blurb for the Antony Blunt bedroom (lurking in read more
  • Memetic Engineer: @ H Figi - the photos of the outside are read more
  • H Figi: The pictures of the outside are dreadful. I just saw read more
  • Valerie Blondeau: Could you kindly let me know how one goes about read more

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