Star and Garter

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Introduction

Let me start by saying that the Star and Garter was never a cricket club, rather it was an tavern or perhaps something more akin to a members club. It was located in Pall Mall, a prestigious road in West Central London. Here Noblemen and Gentlemen gathered in the Eighteenth Century; its facilities largely consisted of a series of private dining rooms which could be hired by groups and where fine wines would be served.

As we will see it played a huge role in cricket history. After the restoration of the monarchy in in 1660, the aristocracy enjoyed new prestige and confidence. The Great Fire of 1666 had opening up the possibility of rebuilding the city and many noble families had taken advantage of this by constructing palaces and other large houses in the area to the West of the City. Hence there was a population of young affluent men in this area with the time and money to set about having a thoroughly good time; many of these attended the Star and Garter. Amongst them, in 1765, was the fifth Lord Byron (grandfather of the poet) and it was there that he killed a man in a duel.

Derek Birley writes of this period “The passion for gambling [in the early Eighteenth Century] was an indication of a certain characteristics of the English upper classes, particularly a new town-bred sort, that came to flower in Restoration times – a reckless tendency to to plunge into quarrels and a keen interest in money”1. He encapsulates the prevailing atmosphere of the Star and Garter. The Club was the venue for the first meetings of the Jockey Club in the 1750s, this giving an indication of the interests of the membership. More particularly it played an important role in the development of cricket in London.

Location

Pall Mall in the Eighteenth Century – St James Palace is on the right of the picture. The Star and Garter would have been about 100 yards away, on the right of the road disappearing into the distance,

Some writers have tried to muddy the waters by pointing out that there were at least two taverns on Pall Mall that bore the name Star and Garter. However, one was a modest Inn (on the north side of the street, on the site of the present No. 44 Pall Mall, opposite to Schomberg House) which would never have attracted the aristocracy. The other Star and Garter stood on the south side of Pall Mall, numbered 94-95, and was altogether a grander establishment, famous for its fine claret and exclusive dining rooms and there is universal agreement that this is the tavern we are interested in. We have a drawing by John Coney in 1796 of its outward appearance (relevant buildings underlined in red):

This shows a four-storeyed building of early eighteenth-century character, probably two houses originally; that to the east (to the left above) having a narrow front projecting from its neighbour. It is described on British History as follows: “The east house had a shop at ground-floor level, a prominent canted bay on the first floor, and two windows in each succeeding storey, the front being quoined at the angles and finished with an eaves-cornice and a hipped roof. The western house had a rusticated Doric porch to the west of the three ground-floor windows, and four windows in each upper storey. The angle quoins and eaves-cornice were uniform with those of the eastern house.”

The buildings in this terrace were demolished in the Nineteen Century and replaced by the Carlton Club. In the twentieth century, the building was again replaced, this time by a bland office block numbered 100 and covering the numbers 90 – 100 (left). The precise location of the Inn would be near the centre of this building; sadly, there is no plaque to mark the significance of this site. The older building next door, a fragment of which is visible on the right of the picture, is the Royal Automobile Club. The street on the far side of the building is Carlton Gardens.

Coincidentally, the Rugby Football Union was founded nearby, at a meeting at the Pall Mall Restaurant on 26 January 1871.

Connections with cricket

The aristocrats who made use of the Star and Garter were drawn to sport, not least for its potential for gambling and this was to feature prominently in their agenda. As noted above. it was here that the early meetings of the Jockey Club were held around 1750. The club members were interested in cricket as well, setting matches up and then wagering on results. Their enthusiasm and wealth were to move cricket from a rural game into something approaching a professional business. There are at least four important developments that in which attendees of the Inn played a major part:

The London Club

The original London Club was formed around 1722 by patrons of the Start and Garter and was one of the foremost teams in English cricket over the next four decades. In essence, it was the team of the Star and Garter members, often fielding their members, but sometimes drawing on other talent and staging matches with a strong financial element – betting, entrance money, refreshment sale, stakes or fees. They were based at the Artillery Ground in Finsbury where their matches often attracted large, even huge crowds.

Out of the total of 845 Important Matches played before 1800, a astonishing 297 featured London as one of the teams and there were numerous other where London fielded a team merged with those of somewhere else. Sadly though, very few scorecards exist so out knowledge of those matches is very limited. The heyday of the team came to an end with the Seven Years War (1756-1763) when many of the aristocracy and gentry retreated to the countryside, leaving the London scene without players and, more importantly, patronage. The London Club only played 20 of its many Important Matches matches after 1756.

The Laws

The Star and Garter was the location for important meetings concerning formal codification of the Laws of Cricket. In particular, there are the editions printed in 1755 and in 1774, both of which specify that they were agreed at the Star and Garter. The 1774 code is recorded as being settled by a Committee of Noblemen and Gentlemen of Kent, Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Middlesex, and London.

The Je-ne-sais-quoi / White Conduit Club

Pelham Warner, in his history of the Marylebone Cricket club records that the Star and Garter was the location where members of an aristocratic group called the Je-ne-sais-quoi were wont to meet. From at least 1782, when cricket was beginning to reestablish itself in the capital, a subgroup of these also played cricket close to the pleasure park in Islington known as the White Conduit Fields, where the game had been played since at least 1718. They seem to have filled the space left by the now defunct London Club and comprised what became known as the White Conduit Club. Their rules have survived and were as follows2:

None but gentlemen ever to play – oh dear. The club though was to be a short-lived affair, a precursor to something much more resilient.

Marylebone Cricket Club

The ground at White Conduit Fields however, was not satisfactory. A public footpath crossed over it and there was no privacy for the players. One of the team who played there, one who was actually a member of the lower echelons, was Thomas Lord, an enterprising and ambitious wine merchant with contacts in the world of property. He was given the task of finding a ground where the gentlemen players could perform behind a barrier, to afford them decent privacy or, perhaps, so an entrance fee could be charged. He came up with the ground at what is now Dorset Square which he purchased himself and rented to the players, or at least, to some of them. The first match was played there in 1787 and the lessees of the ground were to organise themselves as the Marylebone Cricket Club a club that was to change cricket forever.

The transition though was not entirely straightforward. The MCC’s first match was against the White Condit Club which shows that there were two distinct identities. Perhaps there was some kind of rift within the Star and Garter membership – maybe some wanted to go with Thomas Lord, other to stay at Islington? We cannot know, but the MCC were to prove to be more than viable by themselves.

Footnotes

  1. Birley, page 12 β†©οΈŽ
  2. Major, appendix 2 β†©οΈŽ
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