The Athenaeum , 1824

The Athenaeum was founded in 1824 at the instigation of John Wilson Croker, Secretary of the Admiralty, as "a Club for literary and scientific men and followers of the fine arts..." "...In order to keep our Club what it is intended to be, ... we must lay down, clearly and positively, as our first rule, that no one shall be eligible into it, except Gentlemen who have either published some literary or professional work, or a paper in the Philosophical transactions... Bishops [and] Judges, who are, par état, literary men, altho' they may not have published any literary work [will be included]." [John Wilson Croker letters to Sir Humphry Davy, 1823] The first secretary was Michael Faraday and the first Chairman Sir Humphry Davy. John Wilson Croker continued to be influential in the development of the Club.

The first Committee meeting took place on 16 February 1824 in the rooms of the Royal Society. The next nine meetings were held in the home of Joseph Jekyll at 22 New Street, Spring Gardens. In May 1824 the Club moved into rented premises at 12 Waterloo Place. On the recommendation of John Nash, it commissioned the 24 year old Decimus Burton to design a clubhouse, originally intended for a site nearer the present Trafalgar Square. By 1827, the designs and plans for a house in the Grecian style were approved and the tender of the builders accepted. The house was built on a portion of the courtyard of the demolished Carlton House on lease from the Crown and opened in 1830. It was one of the earliest buildings to be lit by gas and, in 1886, the clubhouse became one of the first buildings to be lit by electricity. The premises were extended by the addition of a top storey designed by T E Collcut in 1899 and completed in 1901. This was remodelled to provide accommodation for Members in 1928. The magnificent premises have been carefully maintained and some of the mahogany furniture designed for the Club by Decimus Burton is still in use today.

Number 6 Carlton Gardens, which had been built by John Nash, was leased from the Crown Estate Commissioners in 1936 to provide Members with somewhere to take lady guests. It was known as the Ladies' Annexe. By the 1950s its use was declining. The lease expired in 1961 and the Crown Estate Commissioners refused to renew it. The building was demolished soon after. A new Ladies' Annexe was created in the basement of the Athenaeum with a separate entrance from the street and opened in 1962. From 1972 lady guests had access to the same areas of the Club as male guests. Ladies were invited to become Members of the Club from 2001.

At the first meeting of the Club held on 16 February 1824, the membership limit was set at four hundred. This was steadily increased and by December 1824 was set at one thousand. The cost of the magnificent premises had resulted in a deficit of some £20,000 and two hundred Supernumerary Members were elected in 1830 to restore the finances. By 1838 the Club was again in straitened circumstances after undertaking expensive remedial action because of the damage caused by the gas lighting. To alleviate the situation, one hundred and sixty Supernumerary Members were admitted to ordinary membership. An additional forty candidates were brought forward from the waiting list for election by Committee. These "forty thieves", as they became known, were selected from "Individuals known for their Scientific or Literary attainments, Artists of eminence in any class of the fine Arts, and Noblemen and Gentlemen distinguished as liberal Patrons of Science, Literature, or the Arts." They included Charles Dickens and Charles Darwin. Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the time candidates waited to come up for election was increasing until some candidates had been waiting as long as thirty years. By the time of the First World War, the numbers waiting had significantly reduced. The present complement is two thousand members.

Over the nearly two hundred years since its foundation the Athenaeum has maintained its standard of high attainment and distinction in the membership. More than fifty members have been awarded the Nobel Prize, including at least one in each category. Amongst the professions well represented in the Club are: academia of all disciplines; art; the church; the civil service; engineering; law; medicine; music; science; and literature; with a small number of professionals from business and politics. The wide interests of the Club's membership are reflected in the Athenaeum Library, the finest club library in London. From the outset Members were encouraged to donate works to the Library and many of the Library's 70,000 volumes are donations. The Archive is substantially intact from the foundation of the Club in 1824. The Library and Archive are managed by the Library Committee.

The Club is governed by the Trustees and a General Committee of Members. The day to day running is managed by an Executive Committee which was established in 1889. There are also standing sub-committees for: Audit; the Library; Investment; Music; Talk Dinners; Wine; and Works of Art.