Bachelors' Club

The Bachelors' Club was a London gentlemen's club in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, now defunct. As the name suggests, membership was only open to bachelors. The club had a reputation for having a markedly younger membership than many other Edwardian clubs, and given the high-spirited antics which sometimes ensued on the premises, it was cited (along with Buck's) as an influence on the fictional Drones Club, in some of P.G. Wodehouse's earlier stories.[1] A persistent rumour circulated throughout its existence, and reached wider circulation in the 1920s, that some of its membership were 'confirmed bachelors' - then both illegal and publicly frowned upon – and it soon became superseded by Buck's as the young man's club in London, being forced to close shortly thereafter.

Famous members included Field Marshal Sir Herbert Kitchener, and Capt. Berkeley Levett, a witness in the Royal Baccarat Scandal.

See also

In the Bachelors' Club, Tarbolton, Scotland, Robert Burns and his friends formed a literary and debating society in 1780.

In 1769 a Bachelors' Club in Gothenburg, Sweden, was founded. In 1787 the club got royal appropriation and exists still today as the The Royal Bachelors' Club.

Notes

  1. ↑ Alexander-Sinclair, Ian (report) (2007). "Bertie Wooster's Mayfair". Norman Murphy's talk at Wodehouse Week 2007 (The PGW Society UK). Archived from the original on 2007-08-11. Norman [Murphy] explained that Dover Street was the street of new clubs in the 1920s and 30s. So here Wodehouse found the ideal site for the fictional Drones Club, originally based on the real Bachelors' Club, but subsequently the source of the Drones was transferred to Buck's Club,

External links

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