It was the original home of the Conservative Party before the creation of Conservative Central Office. The club was founded in , by Tory peers , MPs and gentlemen , as a place to coordinate party activity after the party's defeat over the First Reform Act. The 1st Duke of Wellington was a founding member; he opposed the Reform Act and its extension of the right to vote.
It lost its role as a central party office with the widening of the franchise after the Reform Act , but it remained the principal venue for key political discussions between Conservative ministers, MPs and party managers. The club was formed at the Thatched House Tavern in and its first premises were in Carlton Terrace provided by Lord Kensington , from which it drew its name.
These premises were quickly found too small. The second club house was situated near to the Reform Club at 94 Pall Mall, London , and was purpose-built in It was replaced by a third club house on the same site in The club is most famous for the Carlton Club meeting of 19 October , in which backbench Conservative MPs decided to withdraw from the David Lloyd George β led coalition government. MPs voted in favour of discontinuing the coalition, after speeches from Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin , with Baldwin saying that the fact Lloyd George was a 'dynamic force' was a danger to the stability of the Conservative party.
Austen Chamberlain resigned as leader and Bonar Law formed a purely Conservative government. The club suffered a direct hit during the Blitz on 14 October , [5] Observers, including the diarist Harold Nicolson , noted Quintin Hogg then a young Conservative MP, later the 2nd Viscount Hailsham carrying his elderly, disabled father Lord Hailsham from the building like Aeneas carrying his father Anchises from the Sack of Troy ; they had been dining together prior to the former's departure for active service in North Africa.
The Chief Whip David Margesson , who was living at the Club since his recent divorce, was left homeless and had to sleep for a time on a makeshift bed in the underground Cabinet Annexe. No-one was killed in the explosion, but the building was destroyed. The Carlton immediately moved to its current premises, at 69 St James's Street , London , formerly the premises of Arthur's Club β one of the premier Gentlemen's clubs, which had closed the same year, after years of operations.
