The Reform Club was made famous by Jules Verne as the home-from-home of Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days. Yet it began life, as John Goodall discovers, as an attempt to unify the Radical and Whig interests as a coherent political force, prompting work to what aimed to be the most magnificent club in London.
In May 17, 1837, some members of a new club established to promote political reform — the defining parliamentary issue of the moment — compiled…
