The Club’s main staircase is the largest unsupported marble staircase in Europe and is built on the cantilever principle, with the marble base adorned with alabaster. It is one of the few parts of the Club that is not original, with Waterhouse’s main staircase having been destroyed by a bombing raid in 1941, and this magnificent replacement was completed in 1950.
In striving for an ‘unsupported’ structure, the present-day staircase went for a different design to the original, which had been flanked by marble pillars throughout. The original staircase was immortalised in Arthur Quiller-Couch’s 1918 novel Foe-Farrell, with a character cautioning that the lift should be preferred by late-night visitors after a heavy meal: ‘Don’t try the marble staircase—it’s winding and slippery at the edge.’
