Public Schools Club

The Public Schools Club is a former London gentlemen's club.

100 Piccadilly today

There have been several iterations of the Public Schools Club.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, the Public Schools Club restricted its membership to former pupils of Charterhouse School, Eton College, Harrow School, Rugby School, Westminster School and Winchester College.[1]

In the twentieth century a club founded in 1909 and based in Albemarle Street disbanded during World War I as a result of the heavy casualties sustained among its membership.

After the war the club was re-founded in 1920 in Curzon Street, Mayfair. A 1937 road-widening scheme (linked to the 1935 road alterations which necessitated demolishing half of Lansdowne House and creating the Lansdowne Club) forced the club out of its premises, and it moved to 100 Piccadilly, where it remained for the rest of its existence.

Suffering from dwindling membership, the club closed in 1972, merging with the East India Club, and moving to the East India's premises in St James's Square. However, the merger has proved to be something of a takeover, as the East India naturally had no remaining members from the long-defunct East India Company, and the Public Schools Club has imported a steady stream of members.[2] Indeed, the East India currently claims some 40% of its members come under the 'J7' rule imported from the Public Schools Club, whereby students leaving their public school at 18 pay a £360 (as of 2014) fee in exchange for membership until the age of 25.[3]

References

1. "Page 123, Fleming Report (1944)". Gillard D (2018) Education in England: a history.
2. Anthony Lejeune, The Gentlemen's Clubs of London (Macdonald and Jane's, London, 1979) pp. 200-3
3. "East India Club - Membership - J7 and the East India Club". eastindiaclub.co.uk.

See also

• List of London's gentlemen's clubs