The Clifton Club is a traditional private members club in

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

, England, founded in 1818 as a meeting place for the gentlemen of the prosperous port of Bristol. Clifton Club 3

History

The club was founded in

Clifton Clifton may refer to: People *Clifton (surname) *Clifton (given name) Places Australia * Clifton, Queensland, a town **Shire of Clifton *Clifton, New South Wales, a suburb of Wollongong *Clifton, Western Australia Canada *Clifton, Nova Scotia ...

, an exclusive suburb of Bristol, in 1818 by a host of local gentlemen. It is therefore one of the earliest remaining such clubs in the country: only Brooks's,

White's White's is a gentlemen's club in St James's, London. Founded in 1693 as a hot chocolate shop in Mayfair, it is the oldest gentleman's club in London. It moved to its current premises on St James's Street in 1778. Status White's is the oldes ...

, Boodle's, the

Royal Thames Yacht Club The Royal Thames Yacht Club (RTYC) is the oldest continuously operating yacht club in the world, and the oldest yacht club in the United Kingdom. Its headquarters are located at 60 Knightsbridge, London, England, overlooking Hyde Park. The club ...

Marylebone Cricket Club Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club founded in 1787 and based since 1814 at Lord's Cricket Ground, which it owns, in St John's Wood, London. The club was formerly the governing body of cricket retaining considerable global influence ...

, and the

Liverpool Athenaeum The Athenaeum is a private members club in Liverpool, England. The club was founded to ensure the up-to-date provision of newspapers and pamphlets, and to create a library for the use of the merchants and professional men in the city. The orig ...

are older. In a curious coincidence, the meeting held to discuss the club's founding was held in what was then the Clifton Hotel – which subsequently became the club's current home. The club originally had premises in Birdcage Walk. After several years the club's use had dwindled and the decision was taken to disband. In 1850 several of the members of the original club resurrected the club at new premises.

Membership

The Clifton Club has for over 190 years been one of the most socially exclusive organisations in Bristol. Membership must be gained on the invitation and recommendation of at least two members of good standing who have each known the candidate for at least three years. Historically the club's membership has included the heads of major Bristol business, local

landed gentry The landed gentry, or the ''gentry'', is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, th ...

, and the higher echelons of the professions. The club has a long and well documented link with the

Society of Merchant Venturers The Society of Merchant Venturers is a charitable organisation in the English city of Bristol. The society can be traced back to a 13th-century guild which funded the voyage of John Cabot to Canada. In 1552, it gained a monopoly on sea trading ...

; to this day many members of the society are also members of the Clifton Club. Other Bristol institutions whose memberships overlap with that of the club include the Bristol Savages and the Antient Society of St Stephen's Ringers. The club has reciprocal arrangements with a number of clubs around the world of a similarly exclusive nature including the

Travellers Club The Travellers Club is a private gentlemen's club situated at 106 Pall Mall in London, United Kingdom. It is the oldest of the surviving Pall Mall clubs and one of the most exclusive, having been established in 1819. It was described as "the ...

and the

Lansdowne Club The Lansdowne Club is a Social club, private members' club in London, England occupying a large building, notable in its own right. It was established in 1935 and occupies most of 9 Fitzmaurice Place, a street connecting Berkeley Square to Curzo ...

in London, The

, The Royal Scots Club in Edinburgh, Western Club in Glasgow,

Phyllis Court Phyllis Court is a private members club in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, England, situated by the River Thames. The Club was founded in 1906 and is located in a Georgian-style building set within its own grounds, close to the town centre. It ...

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...

, the

Royal Automobile Club of Australia The Royal Automobile Club of Australia (RACA) is an Australian motoring organisation, which has also incorporated the Australian Imperial Services Club since 1987. The RACA was established in March 1903 in Sydney, and is the oldest motoring c ...

, Union Club of British Columbia and The Ontario Club in Canada, The Cape Town Club and Durban Club in South Africa, The Capital Club in Cairo, the University Club of San Francisco, and The Cornell Club in New York. For the first 188 years of its existence membership of the club was restricted to men only. In 2006 the members, in a move which caused a degree of controversy amongst the membership, voted to allow women to become full members of the club.

Premises and facilities

The Clifton Club's premises stand at 22, The Mall,

Clifton, Bristol Clifton is both a suburb of Bristol, England, and the name of one of the city's thirty-five council wards. The Clifton ward also includes the areas of Cliftonwood and Hotwells. The eastern part of the suburb lies within the ward of Clifton Do ...

. Originally built as the Clifton Assembly Rooms and Hotel, the club purchased the building in the mid-nineteenth century. It was designed by

Francis Greenway Francis Howard Greenway (20 November 1777 – September 1837) was an English-born architect who was transported to Australia as a convict for the crime of forgery. In New South Wales he worked for the Governor, Lachlan Macquarie, as Australia's ...

, later held in Newgate prison on charges of forgery and transported to Australia where he became famous as the father of Australian architecture, and is the only remaining building of his design in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

. It is a

Grade II* In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

. The building has an imposing three-storey stone facade, and offers members very luxurious facilities including a salon/drawing room which also contains the main bar, dining room, committee room,

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

room, and

snooker room A billiard room (also billiards room, or more specifically pool room, snooker room) is a recreation room, such as in a house or recreation center, with a billiards, pool or snooker table. (The term "billiard room" or "pool room" may also be us ...

. The club also owns much of the property surrounding the club. In common with other members' clubs the purpose of the Clifton Club is to provide its members with luxurious and exclusive facilities in which they may meet one another, eat, drink, play games such as bridge, chess, backgammon and snooker, and generally use the place as a 'home away from home'.

References

* John E. Collins, ''The Clifton Club in Context'', (Bristol: Clifton Club Company, 1999)

External links

The Clifton Club website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Clifton Club, The 1818 establishments in England Grade II* listed buildings in Bristol Grade II* listed assembly rooms Assembly rooms Grade II* listed clubhouses Gentlemen's clubs in England Buildings and structures in Clifton, Bristol Dance venues in England

History

Archives

Membership

Premises and facilities

See also

References

External links