A Georgian-era Dulwich dining club has started admitting female members – almost 250 years after it was founded.
The Dulwich Club, established in 1772, is a dining club that has treated members to banquets since before the American War of Independence.
It has all the hallmarks of a venerable society, including an inscribed ivory gavel and a tattered 250-year-old menu book. Even the entry fee of one guinea, equivalent to £1.05, is the same.
But two years ago, club secretary Ian Rankine decided to break with tradition. The 83-year-old former stockbroker said: “It’s an old club but we have to move with the times and it’s not reasonable to limit the membership to men only. I mean, why should we?”
Interestingly, he found there were no official rules banning women but the club decided it was “best to confirm” the will of members.
“We had a special meeting and everybody was quite supportive so we wrote it into the rules,” he said.
“There were one or two people who thought it might change the atmosphere or the ethos of the place but I don’t see why it should. It’s changed very little really.”
Its function is the same as it always has been, to give people a chance for people to meet for “high quality” catered banquets twice a year.
“The atmosphere is very, very friendly, very convivial. That’s an old-fashioned word but people enjoy it,” Ian said.
Accepting women isn’t the only change the club’s undergone over its 251-year history.
The tattered menu book, with entries dating back to 1782, shows members tucking into some unfamiliar dishes including turtle soup and boiled fowl.
Turnips, spinach, fish, turkey, chicken, pork and hunting pudding – a sweet dish made from berries and wheat bread – were regularly on the menu.
The club also has an ivory gavel with its founding year inscribed on it although Ian said it’s “too fragile” to use nowadays.
In the club’s original rules, dinner was served ‘on the table precisely at half past three o’clock’. But as London’s dining habits got gradually later, so did the club’s.
Since being established, The Dulwich Club has counted a host of illustrious local figures among its ranks.
Its membership has included inventor Henry Bessemer, who revolutionised the steel industry, arctic explorer Admiral Bedford Pim and Dr George Webster, founder of the British Medical Society.
They regularly host speakers who tend to be leaders in their respective fields, including writers, politicians and diplomats.
Its 50 members, including three women, meet for dinner twice yearly. May’s spring dinner is hosted at Dulwich College while the November meeting is usually hosted at one of the livery halls or old London clubs in the West End or the City.
After reaching a low ebb of just twelve members in 1872, the club is now fully subscribed with 50 members and several are on the waiting list.
The Victorian post-cart being wheeled through Dulwich Village 140 years later