Oriental Club
| Founded | 1824 |
|---|---|
| Address | Stratford House, Stratford Place, WC1 |
| Clubhouse occupied since | 1962 |
| Club established for | East India Company civil and military officers who served in the East |
Stratford Place, WC1
The Oriental Club in London is a prestigious private members' club established in 1824 that now admits both gentlemen and ladies (since 2010). Charles Graves describes it as fine in quality as White's but with the space of infinitely larger clubs. It is located in Stratford Place, near Oxford Street and Bond Street, London W1.
The Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany reported in its April, 1824, issue –
The founders included the Duke of Wellington and General Sir John Malcolm, and in 1824 all the Presidencies and Provinces of British India were still controlled by the Honourable East India Company.
The early years of the club, from 1824 to 1858, are detailed in a book by Stephen Wheeler published in 1925, which contains a paragraph on each member of the club of that period.
James Grant said of the club in The Great Metropolis (1837) –
To this day the old Smoking Room is adorned with an elaborate ram's head snuff box complete with snuff rake and spoons, though most members have forgotten its original function.
On 29 July 1844, two heroes of the First Anglo-Afghan War, Sir William Nott and Sir Robert Sale, were elected as members of the club by the Committee as an "extraordinary tribute of respect and anticipating the unanimous sentiment of the Club".
On 12 January 1846, a special meeting at the club in Hanover Square presided over by George Eden, 1st Earl of Auckland, a former Governor-General of India, paid a public tribute to the dying Charles Metcalfe, 1st Baron Metcalfe, which Sir James Weir Hogg described as "a wreath upon his bier".
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