IT’S fair to say that the Walbrook Club is distinct in the modern City of London, with the offices of N. M. Rothschild towering over it. The club, akin to a doll’s house, looks as if it has always been there, as if during the Blitz everything but the Walbrook was destroyed. In fact, it was built in 1952 by the property developer Rudolph Palumbo. Far from a city relic, it is only 71 years old.
In 2000, Palumbo’s son Peter, now Baron Palumbo, opened the building as a private members’ club designed by clubland king Mark Birley, founder of Annabel’s. Today, it is run by Lord Palumbo’s 30-year-old son, the Hon Philip Palumbo, who, after a tour, settles us down in a meeting room, wallpapered in William Morris, with a stuffed canary keeping watch in the window. ‘He won a beauty pageant,’ says Mr Palumbo by way of explanation.
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