St Stephen's Club

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St Stephen's Club is a London gentlemen's club in Westminster, founded in 1870.

St Stephen's, the 20th oldest club in the capital city, was originally on the corner of Bridge Street and the Embankment, in London SW1, which the government building Portcullis House now occupies.

According to Charles Dickens, Jr, writing in 1879:^[1]

“

St Stephen’s Club, Victoria Embankment, S. W. — The only persons eligible for membership are those who profess and maintain Constitutional and Conservative principles. The committee have power to select for ballot twenty candidates annually from those duly proposed and seconded, who shall be called selected members. The election of members is by ballot in committee. Entrance fee, £31 10s.; subscription, £10 10s.

”

The premises were sold to the government in the early 1960s and the club moved to its present address, 34 Queen Anne's Gate, the former private house of Lord Glenconner, in 1962.

Taking its name from St Stephen’s Chapel, the original meeting place of the Commons, the club was initially connected with Tory Members of Parliament and civil engineers. Benjamin Disraeli, twice Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was among the founding fathers.

The club was reopened at Queen Anne’s Gate by Harold Macmillan, then prime minister. Traditionally the chairman of the Conservative Party was the club's president.

The club, acquired in January 2003 by James Wilson and Myra Jauncey, is now apolitical and flourishes as a private members' luncheon club and venue for evening functions.