The Royal Automobile Club was founded in 1897 for the "Protection, Encouragement and Development of Automobilism". The present flamboyant French-facade building is on the site of the old War Office and was completed in 1911 by the architects of the Ritz, Mewes and Davis; a small army of French craftsmen were employed in its construction. The royal accolade was awarded by Edward VII, a keen early motorist and of course the prime mover in the Entente Cordiale with France.

Clubhouse facilities include Turkish baths renovated in 2003/4, a spectacular Byzantine-style indoor swimming pool, various lounges, bars, restaurants and function rooms as well as numerous bedrooms. Whilst the Cocktail Bar on the ground floor specialises in gins, the Long Bar in the basement offers an extensive range of whiskeys along with four cask ales and a lunch counter. The various other dining rooms provide waiter-served meals to a high standard of food and service.

The traitors Burgess and Maclean chose this as the venue for their last lunch together before defecting to Moscow! Nowadays, the club has a wide membership of many thousands. It should not be confused with the RAC automotive services company it formerly owned.