The Cosmopolitan Club in London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, England, was a club

Club

A club is an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal. A service club, for example, exists for voluntary or charitable activities; there are clubs devoted to hobbies and sports, social activities clubs, political and religious clubs, and so forth.- History...

 which existed from 1852 to 1902. It met in rooms in Berkeley Square

Berkeley Square

Berkeley Square is a town square in the West End of London, England, in the City of Westminster. It was originally laid out in the mid 18th century by architect William Kent...

 which had previously been the studio of George Frederic Watts

George Frederic Watts

George Frederic Watts, OM was a popular English Victorian painter and sculptor associated with the Symbolist movement. Watts became famous in his lifetime for his allegorical works, such as Hope and Love and Life...

 and then of Henry Wyndham Phillips

Henry Wyndham Phillips

Henry Wyndham Phillips was a British portrait painter.His father was the portraitist Thomas Phillips. Henry also produced and exhibited a small number of paintings of subjects from the Bible...

. The meeting room was dominated by a large painting by Watts of a naked damsel in distress. The painting, A Story from Boccaccio, depicted the woman fleeing towards a group of classically dressed figures. It was presented to the nation when the club closed.

The membership included literary men, artists, civil servants and political figures. Watts joined, as did the writers Matthew James Higgins

Matthew James Higgins

Matthew James Higgins was a British writer who used the nom-de-plume Jacob Omnium, which was the title of his first magazine article. He was born in County Meath, Ireland to a landed family. He owned an estate in British Guiana, which he visited twice.Higgins became well known for his aggressive,...

 (Jacob Omnium), Francis Turner Palgrave

Francis Turner Palgrave

Francis Turner Palgrave was a British critic and poet.He was born at Great Yarmouth, the eldest son of Sir Francis Palgrave, the historian and his wife Elizabeth Turner, daughter of the banker Dawson Turner. His brothers were William Gifford Palgrave, Inglis Palgrave and Reginald Palgrave...

, Edward Fitzgerald

Edward Fitzgerald

Edward Fitzgerald may refer to:* Lord Edward FitzGerald , Irish revolutionary*Edward Fitzgerald , Irish* Edward FitzGerald, 7th Duke of Leinster * Edward Fitzgerald...

 and Anthony Trollope

Anthony Trollope

Anthony Trollope was one of the most successful, prolific and respected English novelists of the Victorian era. Some of his best-loved works, collectively known as the Chronicles of Barsetshire, revolve around the imaginary county of Barsetshire...

. Other members included Henry Layard, Sir Robert Morier, James Spedding

James Spedding

James Spedding was an English author, chiefly known as the editor of the works of Francis Bacon.-Life:He was born in Cumberland, the younger son of a country squire, and was educated at Bury St Edmunds and Trinity College, Cambridge; where he took a second class in the classical tripos, and was...

 and William Gladstone.

The club is said to be the basis of "The Universe", "the club where the best informed political gossip is heard", in Trollope's novel Phineas Redux

Phineas Redux

Phineas Redux is a novel by Anthony Trollope, first published in 1873 as a serial in The Graphic. It is the fourth of the "Palliser" series of novels and the sequel to the second book of the series, Phineas Finn.-Synopsis:...

.