Dining club
A dining club (UK) or eating club (US) is a social group, usually requiring membership (which may or may not be available only to certain guests or people), which meets for dinners and discussion on a regular basis. They may also often have guest speakers.
United Kingdom
A dining club differs from a gentlemen's club in that it does not have permanent premises, often changing the location of its meetings and dinners.
Clubs may limit their membership to those who meet precise membership requirements. For example, the Coningsby Club requires members to have been a part of either OUCA or CUCA, the Conservative Associations at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, respectively. Others may require applicants to pass an interview or pay an entrance or membership fee.
Early dining clubs include the Pitt Club, the Bullingdon Club, and the 16' Club.
United States
In the United States, similar social clubs are known as eating clubs. Eating clubs date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries and are designed to provide college students with an opportunity to enjoy meals and engaging conversations. Some clubs are called bicker clubs due to the process of bickering over which applicants to admit as members. Largely replaced by the modern fraternity and sorority system, eating clubs now exist at only a few colleges and universities, most notably at Princeton University, although other institutions like Stanford University, Davidson College, the University of Mount Olive, and Reed College also have eating clubs.
Dining clubs often have reciprocity agreements with other dining clubs across the nation or even internationally. Some are able to establish reciprocity with other private social clubs that offer additional amenities beyond dining, such as overnight guest rooms and gyms. An example of such social clubs is the Penn Club of New York City, which has reciprocity with the India House Club at 1 Hanover Square.
List of dining clubs
This list is incomplete. Date of founding in brackets.
18th-century, or earlier, foundations
- Hibernian Catch Club ↗ ( ~)
- Kit-Cat Club ↗ (before 1705)
- Beefsteak Club ↗ ( ~)
- October Club ↗ (1711–1714)
- Society of Knights of the Round Table ↗ (1720)
- Society of Dilettanti ↗ (1732)
- Divan Club ↗ (1744–1746)
- Friendly Brothers of St Patrick ↗ (before 1750)
- The Kensington Club ↗ ( ~)
- The Club (Literary Club) ↗ (1764)
- Lunar Society ↗ (1775–1813)
- Bullingdon Club ↗ (1780)
- Beaver Club ↗ (1785–1830s)
19th-century foundations
- Nobody's Friends ↗ (1800)
- Canada Club ↗ (1810)
- Trinity College Dublin Dining Club ↗, London ( ~)
- Grillions ↗ (1812)
- Société des douze ↗ (1823)
- Geological Society Dining Club ↗ (1824)
- Raleigh Club ↗ (1827)
- Pitt Club ↗ (1835)
- X-club ↗ (1864–1893)
- Myrmidon Club ↗ (1865)
- Whitefriars Club ↗ (1868)3.</ref>
- The 16' Club ↗ ( ~)
- Ivy Club ↗ (1879)
- United and Cecil Club ↗ (as the Constituency Union in 1881)
- Cottage Club ↗ (1886)
- Cap and Gown Club ↗ (1890)
- Tiger Inn ↗ (1890)
- Colonial Club ↗ (1891)
- Omar Khayyám Club ↗ (1892)
- The Astley Society ↗ (1895)
- Castaways' Club ↗ (1895)
- Ye Cherubs (Queens', Cambridge) ↗ (1895)
- The Chinese Club ↗ (1897)
- Stock Exchange Luncheon Club ↗ (1898–2006)
20th- and 21st-century foundations
- Nova Scotia Club ↗ (1900)
- Princeton Charter Club ↗ (1901)
- Quadrangle Club ↗ (1901)
- Coefficients (dining club) ↗ (1902)
- Princeton Tower Club ↗ (1902)
- Terrace Club ↗ (1904)
- Square Club (writers) ↗ (1908)
- Chatham Dining Club ↗ (1910)
- The Other Club ↗ (1911)
- Cercle de l'Union interalliée ↗ (1917)
- Romney Street Group ↗ (1917)
- Coningsby Club ↗ (1921)
- Ratio Club ↗ (1949–1958)
- Piers Gaveston Society ↗ (1977)
- The Squares (dining club) ↗ (1979)
- University Tower ↗ (Durham, North Carolina)}} (1987)
- Strafford Club ↗ (1995)
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