The clubhouse was on the western side of St James's Street.
The original intention was to call it the 'Junior Reform Club', along the model of the Junior Carlton Club formed in 1866, but complaints from the Reform Club's members led it to being named the Devonshire, in honour of its first chairman, the Duke of Devonshire, an aristocrat from a long line of Liberals.
The Devonshire did well in its first decade, but found itself in an awkward position from the 1880s upon the establishment of the National Liberal Club.
With a further extension of the franchise in 1885, the much larger National Liberal was aimed at these new electors, and the Devonshire came to possess neither the prestige of Brooks's or the Reform, nor the broader appeal of the National Liberal.
After a great deal of financial trouble in the 1970s (mirrored in many other clubs of the time, including the Reform, the Carlton, the St James's, the United University, the Junior Carlton, the Army and Navy, and the United Service Club), it finally closed in 1976, with its membership being absorbed by the East India Club.