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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 and 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 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 the Restoration in 1660, the Calves Head Club ( c. 1693 ) and the Green Ribbon Club ( 1675 ).

The characteristics of all these clubs were: