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A watchmaker, named Abraham Isaacs, occupied the first building on the site of 127. He was known to have been here in 1715 and possibly for some years before that. By 1796, Isaacs had been replaced by the auctioneer James Daniels, of whom it was said that he could “pick one’s pocket with his tongue”. By 1823, the house had passed into use as a lodging-house with one William Gunstone. The business was afterwards acquired by Mrs Isabella Moffat and then by William Yates, who ran it until its demolition in 1875.
The new dwelling erected on the site was sold to Sir John Puleston [1830 – 1908], one of HM Lieutenants of the City of London, Constable of Carnarvon Castle and Chairman of the City of London Conservative Association. For 18 years from 1874, Puleston sat as Member of Parliament for Devonport, losing his seat only when Lord Salisbury’s Conservatives were ousted by the Liberals under Gladstone in 1892. When Puleston moved from 127 to an apartment in Whitehall Court in about 1881, he sold 127 to Walter Shoolbred, formerly a Captain of the 13th Middlesex Regiment, who also owned an estate in Ross-shire.
With the departure of Shoolbred, 127 was acquired by the Cavalry Club, which had been founded in 1890 as a proprietary club by an officer in the 20th Hussars. It became a Members’ Club in 1895, and has always occupied its present premises, which were rebuilt in 1908 (which is when the grand staircase was added). This work was carried out by Mewes and Davies, who a few years earlier had been commissioned to decorate the Ritz Hotel. Edward VIII, when Prince of Wales, was frequently to be found here.
In 1976, the Guards Club gave up its premises around the corner in Charles Street, and its independence, and merged with the Cavalry Club, a successful marriage that has stood the test of more than a quarter of a century. Much of the property of the former Guards Club was sold publicly at that time, but the Guards Club brought with them to 127 some fine military pictures, some silver (including a massive candelabra) and 800 Members.
In 1987, the Club’s landlord (Sir Richard Sutton’s Estates) sold all their West-end properties, including 127, to a foreign buyer who immediately sold them on to a London-based property company, Stockley plc. Stockley drew up plans to convert 127 into an hotel and advised the Club Committee that it was not their intention to renew the lease. The Club resolved not to leave the premises they had occupied for nearly 100 years and set about raising the funds to enable it to buy the property from Stockley |
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