Join the club
A new generation is discovering the bottom-warming attractions of the club fender, finds Matthew Dennison
IN the library at Alnwick Castle, easily overlooked amid a collection of nearly 15,000 books and three magnificent mid-victorian inlaid marble chimneypieces by Giovanni Taccolozzi, a sturdy club fender skirting one of those chimneypieces provides additional seating in a comfortable arrangement that includes armchairs loose-covered in a Robert Kime print and antique sofas.
The main family sitting room of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, Alnwick’s library combines grandeur with cosiness, thanks partly to its relaxed seating arrangements, including the club fender.
Since their emergence in the 18th century —initially in club rooms used for gambling, cards or billiards—club fenders have served as informal seating in spaces for entertaining. Doyen of the traditional-style club fender Robin Gage remarks that, when he began making them in the 1980s, ‘a lot of people liked them in a dining room, especially those without a dip in the middle. Guests can sit on them to drink Port less formally’.
In essence a low metal screen topped with padded seating typically upholstered in leather for greater fire resistance, the club fender frames the hearth. When it’s not in use, it’s unobtrusive and discreetly handsome, but, depending on its length or shape, it can provide seating for at least two people, often more, close to a fire and, therefore, invariably at the heart of a room.
The bench-like construction prevents formality, one reason for club fenders’ popularity. It also offers its occupants closest access to what, in several houses, remains the principal heat source. ‘There’s a fight for who sits on the fender every weekend in the winter,’ says Fiona Wilbraham, whose sleek, stylish designs, made with the combined efforts
of metal workers, platers, polishers, upholsterers, leather workers and carpenters, have recently done much to attract a younger audience. ‘Our sitting room is rather cold, so it makes sense to be near the wood burner.’
As country-house interiors expert and curator of Goodwood House James Peill comments: ‘A fireplace is at the heart of a room, so there’s nothing more appealing than sitting on a club fender by an open fire, particularly towards the end of an evening, when the embers are glowing red hot and a last log is thrown on. The very name seems to conjure up memories of cosy late nights in the Highlands.’ Club fenders discreetly underline a fireplace’s status as a room’s focal point. Miss Wilbraham’s designs are unabashedly modern, but those produced by Mr Gage of Original Club Fenders and companies such as Acres Farm have a more traditional appearance, although almost all new fenders are taller than surviving 19th-century examples.
‘When I retired from antiques dealing in the 1980s,’ remembers Mr Gage, ‘I thought about what I could reproduce that wouldn’t look like a reproduction, but which everybody needs.’ His timeless designs have proved remarkably successful, with clients including several members of the Royal Family, the Earl of Pembroke at Wilton House and Jeremy Irons. ‘Everybody says it’s an extra seat that they need in their drawing room for people to perch on.’
And apparently not only in their drawing room. Miss Wilbraham has made club fenders for ‘every room in the house: bedroom, bathroom, dining room, hall, sitting room, snug, study, barn, playroom and kitchen’. A gentleman’s cloakroom remains her only outstanding challenge. Evidently, when it comes to club fenders, the possibilities are endless.
‘The very name seems to conjure up memories of cosy late nights in the Highlands ’