IN 1659 JOHN AUBREY noted, ‘we now use the word clubbe for a sodality [a society, association, or fraternity of any kind] in a tavern.’ The Oxford English Dictionary uses this first occurrence of the term to define the noun ‘club’ as a rather informal social gathering held in a tavern or in a coffeehouse, during which the expenses were split among the members present. While the first coffeehouses started to develop in London during the Restoration, the first clubs, which consisted of small groups of men, appeared at almost the same time. The English capital experienced important new developments as a consequence of political, social and cultural transformations at work through the Restoration, and especially after the Glorious Revolution. The birth of political parties and the explosion of the press; the emergence of public opinion and of a new public sphere; the expansion of trade as well as the revolution in consumption and leisure; the transformation of London and the development of the West End were all significant drivers of change in urban sociability, as they all encouraged sociable interaction between individuals.

The aim of this chapter is to consider the emergence and development of clubs in London from the Restoration into the reign of Queen Anne, resulting from a combination of various political, social and cultural factors. As supported by a wide range of scholars, the period under scrutiny favoured the emergence of new ‘sociable’ aspirations, practices and spaces in Britain, and the growth of clubs has to be seen in the context of broader changes in public sociability. To Peter Clark, the author of British Clubs and Societies, ‘the decades before 1688 marked the infancy of clubs […] the first stumbling steps of a new social institution’ and their rise ‘was boosted by long-term developments after 1688’.

This chapter will provide an analysis of the main reasons why people socialised through these specific new institutions as their various activities and interests determined the function of clubs and their impact on British sociability. What purposes did the club serve at its beginnings and to what extent did it answer new ‘sociable’ aspirations in post-Restoration Britain?