Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from London Clubs, Vol. 1: Their History and Treasures
Thus Tom's, a coffee-house till 1764, in that year, by a guinea subscription, was easily converted into a fashionable club. In the same way White's and the Cocoa-tree changed their character from chocolate-house to club. When once a house had customers enough of standing and good repute, well acquainted with each other, it was quite worth while to purchase the power of excluding all but subscribers, and to turn the place into a club for by such a proceeding undesirable characters, who could obtain constant admission to an Open house, were at once kept outside the doors.
The evolution of the modern club has been so simple that it can be traced with great ease. First the tavern or coffee - house, where a certain number of people met on special evenings for purposes of social conversation, and incidentally consumed a good deal of liquid refreshment; then the beginnings of the club proper - some well-known house of refreshment being taken over from the proprietor by a limited number of clients for their own exclusive use, and the landlord retained as manager; and finally the palatial modern club, not necessarily sociable, but replete with every comfort, and owned by the members themselves. In such places, however, the old spirit of club-life is generally lost. Dr. Johnson, for example, can be imagined passing through the portals of one of these huge buildings, and saying: Sir, this may be a palace, but it is no club. There is no doubt that in a great measure he would be right.
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