We’re excited to announce that we will soon be going to press with a new illustrated history of the Club. Club! Club! Club! takes its title from the chant that went up at the meeting of Chelsea artists in October 1890 when the idea of a club was first suggested, and this new book is a celebration of the way in which that idea has come to fruition over the intervening 135 years.
The book was conceived by Club Members Roy Williams and Laurence Bradbury. As artists and designers themselves, they felt strongly that any book about the Club should be packed with images. With a preface by William Boyd, the 320 page book is stunningly designed and has more than 700 illustrations; the result is a veritable feast for the eyes, and the best possible evocation of the creative spirit of the Club.
Club Secretary Geoffrey Matthews has written the text, which has been researched with considerable care in the archive and elsewhere, so the book provides an authoritative account of all the major episodes in the Club’s history: how the Club was founded, how it came to be in Old Church Street, how it got through the ordeal of two world wars, how it staged the Chelsea Arts Balls at the Royal Albert Hall for nearly sixty years – and what sort of place it is today.
Of course the Club is nothing without its Members, and the book also includes a selection of more than 40 snapshot biographies of celebrated individual Members, ranging from Jimmy Whistler to Molly Parkin, from Augustus John to Sandra Blow.
The price of the book in bookshops will be £50, but our special pre-publication price is just £40.
To pre-order your copies now please click here (Members only) or email the Front Desk.
Please note that once copies are available we will be able to arrange postal delivery at cost if that would be your preference.
We will be taking delivery of physical stock by the end of March.
