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| Engraving of Pall Mall showing St. James Palace by Thomas Bowles, 1763. UK Government Art Collection
Pall Mall is named after a game formerly played in the area. The name derives from the Italian pallamaglio, which literally means 'ball-mallet'. It then became Paille-Maille before it's present form. Samuel Pepys records seeing the game played by the King in nearby St. James park in the seventeenth century.
Most of the property there is now owned by the Crown and the area is famous for the location of many long-standing gentlemen's clubs such as The Oxford & Cambridge Club, the Athenaeum and the Royal Automobile Club.
Gentleman's clubs evolved from the 17th century coffee houses as meeting places where men could find refuge from their womenfolk. However, most of the exclusive gentlemens’ clubs there today date from the 19th century. 
The Royal Automobile Club, Pall Mall. (Picture: EPR Architects)
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Monday, 23 April 2012
London Monopoly (8): Pall Mall
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16 comments:
Hey bazza,
Thanks for this in your ongoing series of the London Monopoly board. Coincidentally, I worked at an office in Stoke on Trent, that is on a street named "Pall Mall".
All the best, Gary
A Gentlemen's club means something else in the U.S. They are a place where men go to get near women, not away.
Hi Gary. I just checked it out on Streetmap and there are about a dozen Pall Malls in the UK. The one in Stoke doesn't lead into a Trafalgar Square though!
Starting Over: Hi. Ah yes! We have that connotation as well but it didn't enter my innocent mind when I posted this!
Hot from the desk of Sir Tom Eagerly:
Ah, sweet memories of many an alcohol-fuelled evening in Pall Mall and St. James. Sir Tom has been assisted from the premises of various Gent's Clubs in that area. Also requested to go by the management on some occasions!
Cheers, old boy.
Dear bazza,
A wonderful place, Pall Mall, and all those gentlemen's clubs too! Unfortunately, the only gentlemen's clubs in Stoke-on-Trent are of a quite different kind.
Very Best Wishes,
David.
Sir Tom: Why am I not surprised by this? I think the AA badge on your Rolls-Royce is not for the Automobile association but for Alcoholics Anonymous!
Hello David. Yes I realised the ambiguity when reading the comment from 'Starting Over', above.
I should think the original London Gentlemen's Clubs are quite unique!
Bazza, it's not as 'pink' as my liking but just the same I appreciate the set as a whole. At first I thought 'ball mallette' might be a game with a ball and, er, mallette. Then I presumed to consider the smokers' choice of "Pall Mall" a relatively old brand of fags from the USA.
But Gentlemen's Clubs!!! Good gracious I don't think I'm supposed to even write about those of old. Umm, the smell of a skank cigar, multiple shots of brandy being sniffed through the air; are we there, Bazza; are we there?
Ooooh, bazza... The mere mention of the Gentleman clubs in your latest post got me all up and around, if you catch my charming drift of things. I haven't read all of the comments before I commented here because I'm in kind of a rush but I have to say that 'Pall Mall' used to be a brand of cigarettes here in America.
And now that I've said that, I just noticed that Dixie beat me to the punch, above, with this invaluable piece of info. :) Gosh!
See? I'm not dead in the blogosphere yet. I'm still able to leave informative and witty comments like this. :) Take care, my friend.
Hi Dixie. On my Monopoly board it's not exactly pink but I understand that it is meant to be!
I know we use the term 'fags' for cigarettes but I thought it meant something quite different on your side of the Atlantic?
Kezza! Hello there, nice to hear from you again.
I just checked and Wikipedia tells me that the Pall Mall cigarette brand was introduced by the British firm Butler & Butler in 1899. It is now a part of British American Tobacco and still available but in different styles in the US, Canada and the UK.
Who'dathunkit?
Hi Bazza,
I know all about Pall Mall at the moment, along with the rest of the Monopoly board as ME and Lisa have been sucked in to buying too many McDonalds in order to get some stickers to win prizes (that we ofcourse won`t!). We haven`t got Pall Mall yet, but we have Whitehall!
Aren`t we sad?!
J
Follow me at HEDGELAND TALES
baazzz, of course, the first time I heard Mick Jagger say he was smoking a fag... I knew that no one was being beaten up in the UK. However if you're from Jersey... you're quite right ~ and now I'll leave.
Hi John. I never eat at McDonald's so I had to check out what you were referring to on line before commenting! Having looked at a few sites I'm still not sure, but I gather it's some kind of promotion.
I think you're a classy kind of chap; more Mayfair than Old Kent Road!
Dixie, it looks like another subject for me to write about in my occasional US v UK English posts!
Are you from Jersey? Then you must know Frankie Valli.
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