Garrick Club

The Garrick Club was founded at a meeting in the Committee Room at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, on Wednesday 17 August 1831. Present were James Winston (a former strolling player, manager and important theatre antiquarian), Samuel James Arnold (a playwright and theatre manager), Samuel Beazley (an architect and playwright), General Sir Andrew Barnard (an army officer from Ulster and a hero of the Napoleonic Wars), and Francis Mills (a timber merchant and railway speculator). It was decided to write down a number of names in order to invite them to be original members of the Garrick Club. The avowed purpose of the club was to "tend to the regeneration of the Drama". It was to be a place where "actors and men of refinement could meet on equal terms" at a time when actors were not generally considered to be respectable members of society. The club was named in honour of the actor David Garrick, whose acting and management at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, in the previous century had by the 1830s come to represent a golden age of British drama. Less than six months later the members had been recruited and a club house found and equipped on King Street in Covent Garden. On 1 February 1832, it was reported that the novelist and journalist Thomas Gaspey was the first member to enter at 11am, and that "Mr Beazley gave the first order, (a mutton chop) at past 12." The list of those who took up original membership includes actors such as John Braham, Charles Kemble, William Macready, Charles Mathews and his son Charles James; the playwrights James Planché, Theodore Hook and Thomas Talfourd; scene-painters including Clarkson Frederick Stanfield and Thomas Grieve. Even the patron, the Duke of Sussex, had an element of the theatrical about him, being a well-known mesmerist. To this can be added numerous Barons, Counts, Dukes, Earls and Lords, soldiers, parliamentarians and judges. The membership would later include Charles Kean, Sir Henry Irving, Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree, Sir Arthur Sullivan, Sir James M. Barrie, Sir Arthur Wing Pinero, Lord Olivier and Sir John Gielgud. From the literary world came writers such as Charles Dickens, William Makepeace Thackeray, Anthony Trollope, H. G. Wells, A. A. Milne (who on his death in 1956 bequeathed the club a quarter of the royalties from his children's books), When the club was founded in 1831, rule 1 of the Garrick Club Rules and Regulations called for the "formation of a theatrical Library, with works on costume". At a general meeting on 15 October 1831, the barrister John Adolphus suggested that members should present their duplicate dramatic works to the club, and that these should go some way towards forming a Library. A very valuable collection has thus come together over the years, and its special collections are particularly strong on 18th- and 19th-century theatre. The novelist William Makepeace Thackeray would frequently draw members of the club who he found amusing. In 1985, Prince Charles was proposed by his father, Prince Philip, and seconded by the actor Donald Sinden. Charles described his profession as "self-employed" on the nomination form. James Winston, the first secretary and librarian of the club, was one of the principal early benefactors and his gifts included minutes from the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as well as his own Theatric Tourist. These presentations formed the nucleus of a Library which now holds well over 10,000 items, including plays, manuscripts, prints (bound into numerous extra-illustrated volumes), and many photographs. In 1933 a 21-year-old kitchen maid at the club stabbed a 33-year-old fish cook at the club in a dispute about working conditions. She was subsequently remanded for a medical report at the Bow Street Police Court. A 1960 dinner at the club hosted by Eugen Millington-Drake brought together British and German survivors of the Battle of the River Plate. In January 1961 the Soviet naval attaché and spy Yevgeny Ivanov was introduced to osteopath Stephen Ward at the club by Colin Coote, the editor of the Daily Telegraph, which would lead to the subsequent Profumo affair. The broadcaster Malcolm Muggeridge resigned from the club in 1964 after being asked for a transcript of an American television interview in which he had criticised the British royal family. A committee member of the club, journalist Joseph C. Harsch, inquired whether "the propriety for a member of the club for speaking against the royal family" might be considered by the club committee. Muggeridge said it was "preposterous ... that the committee of a club like the Garrick should consider themselves entitled to adjudicate upon the propriety or otherwise of what a member may choose to say in public". == Membership ==

Membership process Whilst details of the official membership process are not publicly available, various aspects of the process are known through news stories and the accounts of past or present members. Typically, an existing member is required to initially propose the name of a prospective new member, with another member required to second this proposal. The name of the proposed new member is then "put up" or "posted" in a membership list book. In 2011, the waiting list for membership was reported as being up to five years long. Membership list The identity of some club members, both past and present, has been widely known and reported in the press, with some individuals publicly identifying themselves as members. Since the Garrick's inception however, the club had always kept details of the full membership a closely guarded secret. In March 2024, The Guardian newspaper reported having access to the full "50 page membership book" (current as at the end of 2023) and started reporting on the identities of "about 1,500" all-male members, many of them senior members of the establishment including individuals from royalty, politics, the legal profession, the media and the arts. Case rejoined six months later. Judiciary and legal professionals From the legal profession, The Guardian reported that membership included a Supreme Court judge, five Court of Appeal judges, eight High Court judges, and about 150 KCs. After a vote extending the ban on female members, Dinah Rose, a leading barrister specialising in human rights and public law, urged leading legal professionals including members of the Supreme Court, to "reconsider" their membership in the club. The membership includes the actors Brian Cox and Matthew Macfadyen, both of whom starred in the Succession TV series, Hugh Bonneville, Hugh Laurie, Stephen Fry, Benedict Cumberbatch, David Suchet, and Damian Lewis. From opera, ballet and theatre, members include Christopher Rodrigues, the chair of the Royal Ballet School, John Gilhooly, the artistic director of Wigmore Hall, Harry Brünjes, the chair of the English National Opera, Alex Beard, the chief executive of the Royal Opera House, and Antonio Pappano, chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Nigel Newton, chief executive and founder of the publisher Bloomsbury, best known for publishing the Harry Potter series; Peter Straus, the literary agent; Rocco Forte, the British hotelier and chairman of Rocco Forte Hotels; and Paul Smith, the fashion designer and owner of the eponymous brand. Members of the press Members of the press include Paul Dacre, the journalist editor-in-chief of the DMG Group, the publisher of the Daily Mail among other publications, John Simpson, the BBC's world affairs correspondent, and Sir Simon Jenkins, former editor of The Times. Royalty, clergy and orders and titles The Guardian reported King Charles III being a member, and about 150 members had included the title 'Sir' and 40 members listing themselves as 'Lord' as part of their name. The membership list also includes at least 90 members who have been appointed CBEs (Commander of the Order of the British Empire), 96 members appointed OBEs (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) and 9 members have been appointed KCMGs (Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George). Such awards have been granted for service including acting as ambassadors to Moscow, Rome and Washington, senior roles at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the United Nations, the Foreign Office and the European Commission. The list also includes three bishops (two retired and one serving) and 14 priests. == Women members ==

Current status Until May 2024, the club rules were assumed to exclude the election of female candidates, referring as they did exclusively to 'gentlemen' members. Several past attempts to open the club to women members had failed. The most recent in-person poll on the membership of women in 2015 showed a very slim majority (50.5%) voted to admit women members, but "the club requires a two-thirds majority before rules can be changed". However, in May 2024 the club voted to accept a legal opinion commissioned by four members from Lord Pannick to the effect that the existing rules, where they used the word 'he', should be construed as also meaning 'she' and that therefore, on this basis, no rule change was needed. The vote to accept this opinion required only a simple majority of those present physically and virtually at an extraordinary general meeting, rather than the two-thirds majority that a rule change would have required. In 2026, Queen Camilla became the first female member of the British royal family to be a member of the club. History of the campaign for female membership Equality Act 2010 and changes to allow female guests of members From 1831 up until 2010, women were permitted only as guests of members, and not allowed to sit at the Centre Table which was reserved for members and their male guests Actress Joanna Lumley begins her biggest battle – joining the men-only Garrick Club. In Autumn 2010, however, the Garrick Club management wrote to members informing them that women guests (of members) were no longer banned from sitting at the centre table of its Coffee Room. For the first time in the club's history, women would also now be allowed to visit the cocktail bar before 9 o'clock in the evening and venture "under the stairs", an area hitherto reserved for members. Allowing women to sit at the centre table as guests of members just as male guests of members were permitted was largely in response to the Equality Act 2010, which was introduced by the former Labour minister Harriet Harman. Jonathan Acton Davis who was at the time the Garrick's chairman, said this act meant that "each of those prohibitions was discriminatory and would be illegal" and that the act denoted that "all guests must receive the same treatment irrespective of gender". At the time, Davis said "the decision in relation to the centre table was the most difficult. The long traditions of the club are strongly in favour of restricting use of the centre table to men." In 2011, the actress Joanna Lumley attempted to become the first female member in the club's then 180 year history, and she was the first female to be proposed as a member, proposed by Hugh Bonneville. Although Beloff notified the club's management of the changed legal opinion along with providing them with the revised advice, the club's management failed to share this guidance with members before a November 2023 poll on attitudes towards admitting women. The results of the poll indicated that 51% of members were in favour of admitting women, while 44% were opposed, but the rules of the club reportedly require a two-thirds majority to trigger a rule change. Support for female membership by current members Some current members have openly stated their support of the Garrick Club opening up its membership to women. John Simpson, the journalist, foreign correspondent and chief editor for world affairs at the BBC, who has been a club member since 2001, has said, Public support and support from judiciary and legal professionals for female membership After the rejection of Joanna Lumley's proposed membership in 2011, various public figures campaigned for female members. In 2015, Baroness Hale, as the then-president of the Supreme Court, protested about the club's continued exclusion of women and the acquiescence of its members in that policy. She has said that "I regard it as quite shocking that so many of my colleagues belong to the Garrick, but they don't see what all the fuss is about", arguing that judges "should be committed to the principle of equality for all". She asserts that the rule breaches the Equality Act 2010, but failed to address how the Garrick failed to meet the specific exemptions mentioned in the act that protected same-sex sporting and social clubs. Signing the above petition, Cherie Blair recalled how, in 1976, she watched: == Art ==

, Dame Lilian Braithwaite () The club holds a remarkable collection of artworks representing the history of British theatre. There are over 1000 paintings, drawings and sculptures, a selection of theatrical memorabilia, and thousands of prints and photographs. The collection originated with the actor Charles Mathews, one of the original members of the club who had a passion for collecting theatrical portraits; they were once displayed by him in a gallery at his home, Ivy Cottage, in Highgate, north London. Mathews managed to secure a large number of pictures from the collection of Thomas Harris, who had been manager of the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden, and which included paintings by the likes of Johann Zoffany, Francis Hayman and Gainsborough Dupont. He also actively commissioned artists such as Samuel De Wilde to paint all the popular stars of the stage at that time (there are 196 works by De Wilde in the collection). Mathews had hoped to sell the collection to the club and it appears that lengthy negotiations were entered into without any result. It was eventually purchased by a wealthy stockbroker and donated to the club, having already hung on its walls for several years. The collection continued to grow with many being presented by artist members, such as Clarkson Frederick Stanfield and David Roberts, who with fellow scene painter Louis Haghe painted a series of large canvases, especially for the Smoking Room at the old Clubhouse. Roberts' Temple at Baalbec remains today one of the most important paintings by that artist. Sir John Everett Millais is represented by one of his most important portraits, that of Henry Irving which he painted and presented to the club in 1884. The picture collection continued to expand throughout the twentieth century with artists such as Edward Seago and Feliks Topolski both represented. == Notable deceased members ==

In 2011, the Garrick Club newsletter compiled a list of 100 notable deceased members (since updated): == See also ==