East India Club
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The East India, Devonshire, Sports and Public Schools' Club, usually known as the East India Club, is a gentlemen's club founded in 1849 and situated at 16 St. James's Square in London. Membership of the club is by selection and former pupils of British public schools are encouraged to become members.
Founded in the middle of the 19th century, the club's original members were "the servants of the East India Company and Commissioned Officers of Her Majesty's Army and Navy", supplementing the older Oriental Club, whose numbers were limited.
The Club still provides meeting and social facilities for business and leisure, but it had already lost its military flavour within the first two decades of its foundation, with the East India Company having wound up entirely by 1874.
Since then, the club has amalgamated with the Sports Club (1938), the Public Schools Club (1972) and the Devonshire (1976), all of which ran into the twin problems of keeping up membership numbers and making both ends meet, especially with the escalating costs of maintenance for historic buildings. With the disappearance of the East India Company, the public school influence has recently become an important one and although the club occupies the original building of the East India Club and maintains its fixtures and fittings, its composition today is primarily as a continuation of the old Public Schools Club.
Its facilities include two dining rooms, the 'American bar' which is available to gentlemen only on weekdays (but ladies can use it on weekends), the 'Ladies drawing room' which is open only to gentlemen accompanying ladies, a library, a gymnasium, snooker rooms and 67 bedrooms.
The East India Club is also a private venue and offers conference facilities. The club has a restaurant, smoking room for gentlemen only, drawing room for women visitors, and a library of antiquarian and contemporary books. Most public schools offer membership of the club under the "J7" scheme. Other people gain membership through being proposed and seconded by existing members. However, if an applicant does not know a member, this requirement is waived in favour of an interview with the membership committee.
