5 min read
Located at 40 Dover Street in London’s Mayfair district, the Arts Club is a members-only private club that focuses on supporting emerging artists and fostering conversation and community among local collectors, dealers, and creatives. In addition to five floors of elegant lounges and restaurants, designed by masterminds like Dimorestudio and Giuseppe Porcelli, the club features eight rooms and suites for members and their guests to stay in.
I traveled to London in September for FOCUS at the Design Center Chelsea Harbour and was able to experience firsthand the gracious hospitality, luxurious decoration, and, of course, the thrilling exhibitions at The Arts Club. Meher Waney, the director of membership and business development, gave me a tour of the townhouse’s spaces, including the club’s impressive bars and salons and a cigar lounge, where members who are aficionados can house their private collections. Here’s a look at what The Arts Club has to offer.
The Arts Club, located at 40 Dover Street, is housed in a handsome 18th-century Georgian townhouse.
Looking Out: The View
The townhouse where The Arts Club presides stands tall on Dover Street, with high-end shops and restaurants surrounding it. Just steps away are Savile Row, tea purveyors Fortnum & Mason, St. James’s Palace, the Royal Academy of Arts, and Leicester Square. The Arts Club also boasts a covered terrace (attached to Oscuro) and a garden with a brasserie that can be tented and privatized for an intimate dinner.
The Ante Room, where Zhang’s exhibition is on view until January 24.
The Drawing Room, where Malas’s exhibition is on view until January 24.
Looking Back: The History
The Arts Club was founded in 1863 and, true to its mission today, has always served as a gathering place for creatives in the arts, literature, and the sciences. Figures like Charles Dickens, Auguste Rodin, and James Whistler used The Arts Club as a meeting ground to exchange ideas and debate. “That legacy gives the club a clear point of difference within London’s private members’ club landscape,” says Waney.
She adds, “Rather than treating culture as an add-on, The Arts Club continues to put it at the centre of its identity, with contemporary exhibitions, a permanent collection, artist talks, studio visits, panel discussions, and live music. The club describes its current program as a continuation of the conversations and progressive thinking that began more than 150 years ago.” The Arts Club was first established at 17 Hanover Square but moved to its Mayfair location between 1894 and 1896.
Black-and-white photography, a mirrored headboard and elegant furniture decorate the hotel rooms.
Looking In: The Room
My room was handsomely dressed—a spacious wardrobe, wood detailing, a large desk for working (complete with a button to call your very own butler), and a classically designed bath welcomed me—and hung with fabulous photography, reminding me what lay steps beyond my room. If you have time to spare between gallery hopping, Lanserhof at The Arts Club provides a gym, exercise classes, and wellness services like IV infusions and massage therapies to hotel guests.
The bar at the brasserie features a silk mural wallpaper created by Pictalab.
Looking Around: The Atmosphere
The Arts Club’s beautiful lounges and salons create a feeling of luxury and sanctuary during your stay. The Condo Salon, designed by Italian architect and designer Giuseppe Porcelli, features all bespoke furniture, lighting, and upholstery, with sumptuous fabrics and silk wallcoverings from makers like Pierre Frey, Jim Thompson, Jane Churchill, Colefax and Fowler, Lelievre, and Pictalab. And, of course, incredible artworks fill the walls, making it feel like you’re reclining in a very chic Londoner’s drawing room.
Leo’s, the basement lounge, was designed by Milanese design studio Dimorestudio and completed in 2017. The décor was drawn from French Riviera nightclubs of the 1950s and ’60s and is appointed with a mix of green Guatemalan marble, brass detailing, velvet upholstery, and hand-painted chinoiserie pendant lanterns.
Meanwhile, the first-floor lounge is named Ofelia to pay homage to founding member Sir John Everett Millais and his iconic portrait of Ophelia from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Also designed by Porcelli, it reads like a sleek Milanese apartment with marble-clad walls, a curved ceiling with dark wood paneling, and back-to-back velvet settees.
The Arts Club also invites emerging artists to display their works in the first-floor Drawing and Ante Rooms. Currently on view are contemporary artists Vivien Zhang and Nour Malas, whose works will be presented until January 24, 2027. London-based Zhang—who incorporates nods to cartography, physics, and the botanical world in her work—presents “Second Order,” which includes her own paintings, in addition to wallpaper and maquettes (works on paper) that Zhang selected for the showing.
The New York-based Malas’s solo exhibition, “Living Multiplicity,” in the Drawing Room explores her upbringing in France, Dubai, and Syria. She also works directly with the canvas without sketching beforehand, allowing each painting “to take its own shape.” A perk of staying at The Arts Club is that guests are allowed to wander the lounges, restaurants, and exhibitions at will.
“We typically present around three exhibitions each year, with the programme curated to offer members a changing perspective on contemporary art throughout the year,” says Waney. “Rather than being confined to a traditional gallery space, exhibitions are installed across the Drawing Room and Ante Room, so members encounter the work naturally as part of their time at the club. The exhibitions are also open to the wider public by appointment, giving non-members the opportunity to experience the program and discover the artists we are showcasing.”
The Arts Club’s Penthouse Suites are decorated with contemporary art by Belgian artist Noé Sendas and photography by Jessica Craig-Martin.
Looking Ahead: The Best Times to Visit
The Arts Club aims to support up-and-coming artists and share them with the larger art community. “The key criterion is finding artists that we believe in who deserve a place in art history, but one of the great pleasures of this program has been the hugely diverse range of work we have shown and the different conversations about art that has brought about,” says Waney. “For solo shows, we love working with artists we feel are on the cusp of significant moments. That can range from emerging artists all the way through to artist estates being ‘rediscovered’ and given overdue recognition. In this spirit, we’ve staged early shows with artists such as Theaster Gates, Shara Hughes, and Hugo McCloud (and now Nour Malas) before their wider acclaim.”
Coming up, in January 2027, The Arts Club will stage a show, “The New Curiosity Shop,” which will pay homage to the club’s history of literature and art going hand in hand.