Editing Club (organization) (section)

== History ==
[[File:Carlton-Club.jpg|thumb|Historical image of [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]] with the [[Carlton Club]], describing itself as the "oldest, and most important of all Conservative clubs"]]
Historically, clubs occurred in all ancient states of which exists detailed knowledge. Once people started living together in larger groups, there was need for people with a common interest to be able to associate despite having no ties of kinship. Organizations of the sort have existed for many years, as evidenced by [[Ancient Greek clubs]] and associations (''[[collegia]]'') in [[Ancient Rome]].

=== Origins of the word and concept ===
It is uncertain whether the use of the word "club" originated in its meaning of a knot of people, or from the fact that the members "clubbed" together to pay the expenses of their gatherings.<ref>{{Cite web |last=OUPblog |date=2011-07-20 |title=Club 'an association' |url=https://blog.oup.com/2011/07/club-2/ |access-date=2023-09-08 |website=OUPblog |language=en}}</ref> The oldest English clubs were merely informal periodic gatherings of friends for the purpose of dining or drinking with one another. [[Thomas Occleve]] (in the time of [[Henry IV of England|Henry IV]]) mentions such a club called ''La Court de Bonne Compagnie'' (the Court of Good Company), of which he was a member. In 1659 [[John Aubrey]] wrote, "We now use the word clubbe for a sodality [a society, association, or fraternity of any kind] in a  tavern."<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Origin of Clubs |url=https://www.pascalbonenfant.com/18c/clubs/jt_originofclubs.html |access-date=2023-09-08 |website=www.pascalbonenfant.com}}</ref>

=== In Shakespeare's day ===
Of early clubs the most famous, latterly, was the [[Bread Street]] or Friday Street Club that met at the [[Mermaid Tavern]] on the first Friday of each month. [[John Selden]], [[John Donne]], [[John Fletcher (playwright)|John Fletcher]]
and [[Francis Beaumont]] were among the members (although it is often asserted that [[William Shakespeare]] and [[Sir Walter Raleigh]] were members of this club, there is no documented evidence to support this claim). Another such club, founded by [[Ben Jonson]], met at the Devil Tavern near [[Temple Bar, London|Temple Bar]], also in [[London]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

=== Coffee houses ===
{{main|Coffeehouse}}
[[File:17th century coffeehouse england 1-580x400.jpg|thumb|right|Coffeehouse in [[London]], 17th century]]
The word “club,” in the sense of an association to promote good-fellowship and social intercourse, became common in England at the time of ''[[Tatler (1709)|Tatler]]'' and ''[[The Spectator (1711)|The Spectator]]'' (1709–1712). With the introduction of coffee-drinking in the middle of the 17th century, clubs entered on a more permanent phase. The coffee houses of the later [[Stuart period]] are the real originals of the modern clubhouse. The clubs of the late 17th and early 18th century type resembled their [[Tudor dynasty|Tudor]] forerunners in being oftenest associations solely for conviviality or literary coteries. But many were confessedly political, e.g. The Rota, or Coffee Club (1659), a [[debating society]] for the spread of republican ideas, broken up at [[Stuart Restoration|the Restoration]] in 1660, the [[Calves Head Club]] (c.1693) and the [[Green Ribbon Club]] (1675). The characteristics of all these clubs were:

# No permanent financial bond between the members, each man's liability ending for the time being when he had paid his “score” after the meal.
# No permanent clubhouse, though each clique tended to make some particular coffee house or tavern their headquarters.

These coffee-house clubs soon became hotbeds of political scandal-mongering and intriguing, and in 1675 [[Charles II of England|King Charles II]] issued a proclamation which ran: “His Majesty hath thought fit and necessary that coffee houses be (for the future) put down and suppressed,” because “in such houses divers false, malitious and scandalous reports are devised and spread abroad to the Defamation of his Majesty’s Government and to the Disturbance of Peace and Quiet of the Realm.” So unpopular was this proclamation that it was almost instantly found necessary to withdraw it, and by [[Anne, Queen of Great Britain|Anne]]’s reign the coffee-house club was a feature of England’s social life. See [[English coffeehouses in the 17th and 18th centuries]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

=== 18th and 19th century ===
The idea of the club developed in two directions.  One was of a permanent institution with a fixed [[wikt:clubhouse|clubhouse]]. The London coffeehouse clubs in increasing their members absorbed the whole accommodation of the coffeehouse or tavern where they held their meetings, and this became the clubhouse, often retaining the name of the original innkeeper, e.g. [[White's]], [[Brooks's]], [[Arthur's]], and [[Boodle's]]. These still exist today as the famous [[gentlemen's club]]s.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The [[Peripatetic school|peripatetic]] lifestyle of the 18th and 19th century middle classes also drove the development of more residential clubs, which had bedrooms and other facilities.  Military and naval officers, lawyers, judges, members of Parliament and government officials tended to have an irregular presence in the major cities of [[British Empire|the Empire]], particularly London, spending perhaps a few months there before moving on for a prolonged period and then returning.  Especially when this presence did not coincide with [[Season (society)|the Season]], a permanent establishment in the city (i.e., a house owned or rented, with the requisite staff), or the opening of a [[Townhouse (Great Britain)|townhouse]] (generally shuttered outside the Season) was inconvenient or uneconomic, while hotels were rare and socially ''déclassé''.  Clubbing with a number of like-minded friends to secure a large shared house with a manager was therefore a convenient solution.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The other sort of club meets occasionally or periodically and often has no clubhouse, but exists primarily for some specific object. Such are the many purely athletic, sports and pastimes clubs, the Alpine, chess, yacht and motor clubs. Also there are literary clubs (see [[writing circle]] and [[Book discussion club|book club]]), musical and art clubs, publishing clubs. The name of “club” has been annexed by a large group of associations which fall between the club proper and [[Friendly society|friendly societies]], of a purely periodic and temporary nature, such as slate, goose and [[Christmas club]]s, which do not need to be registered under the [[Friendly Societies Act]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

=== Worldwide ===
[[File:Photoclub Saimaan Kameraseura January 28th 1946.jpg|thumb|Meeting of the Saimaan Kameraseura photoclub on January 28, 1946 in [[Lappeenranta]], [[Finland]]]]
The institution of the gentleman's club has spread all over the [[English-speaking world]]. Many of those who energised the [[Scottish Enlightenment]] were members of the [[The Poker Club|Poker Club]] in [[Edinburgh]]. In the United States clubs were first established after the [[American Revolutionary War|War of Independence]]. One of the first was the Hoboken Turtle Club (1797), which still survived as of 1911. In former [[British Empire]] colonies like India and Pakistan they are known as [[Gymkhana]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}

The earliest clubs on the European continent were of a political nature. These in 1848 were repressed in [[Austria]] and Germany, and later clubs of [[Berlin]] and [[Vienna]] were mere replicas of their English prototypes. In France, where the term ''cercle'' is most usual, the [[Club de l'Entresol]] (1724-1731) was followed by the Club Politique (1782), and during the [[French Revolution]] such associations proved important political forces (see [[Jacobin Club|Jacobins]], [[Feuillant (political group)|Feuillant]]s, [[Cordeliers]]). Of the purely social clubs in [[Paris]] the most notable were the [[Jockey-Club de Paris]] (1833), the Cercle de l'Union, the Traveller's and the Cercle Interallié.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}