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 William Crockford
b. 1775, London
d. May 29, 1844, London
William was founder and proprietor of the
most famous English gambling establishment
London's fame as a gambling
center dates back to the mid-18th century when gaming clubs like Almacks,
Whites, Brook's and the Cocoa Tree first became fashionable.
William
Crockford's career was a remarkable one from start to finish. He had been a
fishmonger of Fleet Street with a sideline in bookmaking and such small-scale
swindles as the three-card trick. In 1816 he bought a quarter-share in a
gambling tavern in St. Jame's. But Crockford realized that this tavern could
only have a limited success. He knew that the most popular clubs were so
because they were selective, and that if he wanted to compete with them he
would have to plan on a much grander scale, and go all out to get the top
people as members.
So after winning a large sum of money
(£100,000, according to one story) either at cards or just by running the
gambling establishment, he built in 1827 a luxuriously decorated gambling house
at 50 St. James's Street in London. To do so he bought four adjoining houses
around the corner. To ensure its social exclusiveness, he organized the place
as a club with a regular membership. Crockford's Club, as it was called,
quickly became the rage; almost every English celebrity from the Duke of
Wellington on down hastened to become a member, as did many ambassadors and
other distinguished foreigners.
Hazard was the favourite game played at
the club, and very large sums changed hands. Crockford retired in 1840 when, as
one contemporary put it, he had "won the whole of the ready money of the
then-existing generation." Crockford retired with about £1,200,000, but
he subsequently lost most of this in unlucky speculations. The building housing
his establishment eventually became the Devonshire Club.
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