Where to find scarce club histories - for free

While I’ve previously shared my reading list on London Clubland, I know only too well that collecting club histories can be an expensive and time-consuming business. Many were published in extremely small print runs, and can be quite scarce; it can take years to track down a copy, and they can easily cost several hundred pounds each.

Fortunately, some of the older (and rarer) volumes are long out of copyright, and have since been digitised - typically via archive.org. I am happy to share with Clubland Substack readers the links to scans of some extremely rare old club history volumes; I found them to be a Godsend when I was doing my PhD research 15 years ago. While they can be a mixed bag, and I can still hear ringing in my head my PhD supervisor’s warnings about “antiquarian volumes”, that is also part of their charm. John Timbs in particular is well worth a read; while the complete 18th & 19th century membership lists of White’s and Brooks’s in their respective books are a formidable digital resource.

Happy browsing!

General club histories

• T. H. S. Escott, Club Makers and Club Members (London: T.F. Unwin, 1914).

• Arthur Griffiths, Clubs and Clubmen (London: Hutchinson, 1907).

• Joseph Hatton, Club-Land, London and Provincial (London: J. S. Virtue, 1890).

• Charles Marsh and Colin Mackenzie, The Clubs of London, 2 vols (London: H. Colburn, 1828).

• Ralph Nevill, London Clubs: Their History and Treasures (London: Chatto and Windus, 1912).

• Henry C. Shelley, Inns and Taverns of Old London: Setting Forth the Historical and Literary Associations of Those Ancient Hostelries, Together with an Account of the Most Notable Coffee-Houses, Clubs, and Pleasure Gardens of the British Metropolis (Boston: L. C. Page, 1866, 1908 ed.).

• F. H. W. Sheppard (ed.), Survey of London: Volumes 29 & 30, St. James’s and Westminster, Parts 1 & 2 (London: HMSO, 1960).

• John Timbs, Clubs and Club Life in London, with Anecdotes of its Famous Coffee Houses, Hostelries, and Taverns from the Seventeenth Century to the Present Time (London: Chatto and Windus, 1866).

• Edwin Ward, The History of the London Clubs; or the Citizens’ Pastime (London: privately published, 1709).

Histories of individual London clubs

The Athenæum (1824- )

• Anonymous, A Catalogue of the Library of the Athenæum (London: Athenæum Club, 1845).

• Humphry Ward, History of the Athenæum, 1824-1925 (London: Athenæum, 1926).

Brooks’s (1764- )

• J. F. Wegg-Prosser (ed.), Memorials of Brooks’s, from the Foundation of the Club, 1764, to the Close of the Nineteenth Century, Compiled from the Records of the Club (London: Ballantyne, 1907).

Carlton Club (1832- )

• Henry Thomas Cox (ed.), Carlton Club Library Catalogue (London: Carlton Club, 1901).

City Liberal Club (1874-1921)

• Hyde Clarke (ed.), Catalogue of the Library of the City Liberal Club (London: Unwin Brothers, 1887).

Civil Service Club (1953- )

• Mark Quinlan, A Brief History of the Civil Service Club, Great Scotland Yard, Whitehall (London: Civil Service Club, 2020). [Made available by the Civil Service Club.]

• Norman Seymour, The Story of 13-15 Great Scotland Yard (London: Civil Service Club, 1992). [Made available by the Civil Service Club.]

The Club (1764-1969)

• Sir Mountstuart E. Grant Duff, The Club, 1764-1905 (London: privately published, 1905).

Crockford’s (1823-1846), and the Devonshire Club (1874-1976)

• Henry Turner Waddy, The Devonshire Club and “Crockford’s” (London: Eveleigh Nash, 1919).

Garrick Club (1831- )

• Percy Fitzgerald, The Garrick Club (London: Elliot Stock, 1904).

• Robert Walters (ed.), Catalogue of the Pictures and Miniatures in the Possession of the Garrick Club (London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1909).

London Sketch Club (1898- )

• Robert Machray, “La Vie de Boheme”, in Robert Machray, The Night Side of London (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1902), pp. 199-216.

National Liberal Club (1882- )

• Peter Harris, ‘A Meeting Place for Liberals‘, Journal of Liberal History, 51 (Summer 2006), pp. 18-23.

Oriental Club (1824- )

• Alexander F. Baillie, The Oriental Club and Hanover Square (London: Longmans, 1901).

Oxford and Cambridge Club (1830- )

• Anonymous, Catalogue of the Library of the Oxford and Cambridge Club (London: Oxford and Cambridge Club, 1887).

Reform Club (1836- )

• Louis Fagan, The Reform Club: Its Founders and Architect (London: Bernard Quaritch, 1887).

• Charles W. Vincent and W. Fraser Rae (eds), Catalogue of the Library of the Reform Club, with Revised Historical Introduction: Second and Enlarged Edition (London: Reform Club, 1894).

Savage Club (1857- )

• Thomas Catling and Walter Jerrold, A Savage Club Souvenir (London: Savage Club, 1916).

• Andrew Halliday (ed.), The Savage Club Papers, First Series (London: Tinsley Brothers, 1867).

• _____________, The Savage Club Papers for 1868 (London: Tinsley Brothers, 1868).

• Robert Machray, “A Saturday Night with the ‘Savages’”, in Robert Machray, The Night Side of London (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1902), pp. 74-90.

• Edwin A. Ward, Recollections of a Savage, i.e. a Member of the Savage Club (London: Frederick A. Stokes, 1923).

• Aaron Watson and Mark Twain, The Savage Club: A Medley of History, Anecdote and Reminiscence (London: T. Fisher Unwin, 1907).

White’s (1693- )

• Algernon Bourke, The History of White’s, with the Betting Book from 1743 to 1878 and a List of Members from 1736 to 1892, 2 vols (London: privately published, 1892).

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You can view the full and varied backlog of Clubland Substack articles, by clicking on the index below.