Almack’s Assembly Rooms in King Street

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Almack was a man from the North named McCell, who, for business purposes, inverted his name.

In 1765, he already kept a club for men in Pall Mall under his new name. It was most noted for its betting and gambling. Nobody could play unless he kept a minimum of 50 guineas on the table. Brook’s club first met there.

The rules of the establishment were that the men candidates for membership should be elected or refused by a committee of women, and the women candidates by a committee of men.

The rooms at the Club were open for dinner, and there was a high play at cards, in which the men and women joined.
Almack’s had a life of just 80 years, but its most brilliant period was in the early years of the 19^th century.

The rooms were built by the architect Mylne.

Doctor Syntax at a Gaming House

The Tour of Doctor Syntax through London or the Pleasures and Miseries of the Metropolis. A Poem. 3^rd edition (London: J. Johnston, 1820), p. 238.
[click on the picture to enlarge it]

"Admitted to the strange sanctorum,

Where, billiards, cards, or dice before them,

The votaries and the victims too

Of gaming still their fates pursue,

Our sage beheld with inward wonder

The odd and motley scene of plunder"

 

The Tour of Doctor Syntax through London or the Pleasures and Miseries of the Metropolis. A Poem. 3^rd edition (London: J. Johnston, 1820), p. 238.

In London, gambling was regulated by an officer of the royal household, the “groom-porter.”

Gambling was also practised in Bath.