 The façade of the Pitt Club | |
| Formation | 1835 |
|---|---|
| Type | Dining club |
| Headquarters | 7a Jesus Lane |
| Location | |
| Coordinates | 52°12′30″N0°07′11″E / 52.20824°N 0.11966°E |
| Website | universitypittclub |
| Remarks | Grade II listed building |
The University Pitt Club, popularly referred to as the Pitt Club, the UPC, or merely as Club, is a private members' club of the University of Cambridge. It was formerly male-only, and has admitted women since 2017. [1]
The Pitt Club was founded in Michaelmas term 1835, named in honour of Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger, [2] who had been a student at Pembroke College, Cambridge. It was originally intended as one of the Pitt Clubs, a series of political clubs set up across Great Britain, 'to do honour to the name and memory of Mr William Pitt, to uphold in general the political principles for which he stood'. [3] In particular the University Pitt Club was intended 'to assist the local party organisations of the town of Cambridge to return worthy, that is to say, Tory, representatives to Parliament and to the Borough Council'. From the start, however, there was a social element as the Club's political events were combined with 'the pleasures of social intercourse at dinner, when party fervour among friends, dining in party uniform, might be warmed towards a political incandescence by the speeches to successive toasts'. [4]
Over the course of the Pitt Club's first few decades, the political element diminished whilst the social element increased. By '1868, at the latest, the Pitt Club [had] ceased from all political activity and . . . elected members to its social advantages without any regards whatever to considerations of political party'. [4] Though the Club's raison d'être changed in its early years, it 'was from the first, and has always remained, an undergraduate organization'. [4] The Pitt Club has been in almost continuous operation since its founding. During the First World War, however, the Club's existence became increasingly tenuous as more Cambridge men joined the forces. It temporarily closed in October 1917 but reopened in early 1919. By 1920, the Club had 'become nearly normal again, "the only real trouble", according to the Minutes, "being the horrible scarcity of whisky'". [4]
The premises were commandeered during the Second World War and made available to the public. One observer, A. S. F. Gow, remarked at the time that the Pitt Club's 'eponymous hero looks down from the pediment, with a nose visibly tiptilted in disgust, upon an enormous notice displaying the legend "British Restaurant"'. [5] As for the members, they were forced to seek alternative accommodation and eventually settled for temporary rooms above the post office in Trinity Street, which they called the Interim Club. [6]
On 7 November 2017, a referendum to elect women into the club passed. This did not pass without controversy, though, with only resident members being granted a vote.
The Club was a peripatetic organisation during its first few years, meeting variously in the rooms of members and in other venues. In 1841, it acquired rooms over the shop of Mr Richard Hutt, bookseller, at 29 Trinity Street, which it occupied until 1843. From 1843 until 1866, the Pitt Club's rooms were located over the furniture shop of a Mr Metcalfe at 74 Bridge Street, on the corner of All Saints' Passage. [7]
Since 1866, the Club's premises have been at 7a Jesus Lane. The building was originally designed in 1863 as 'Roman (improved Turkish) Baths' [a] by Sir Matthew Digby Wyatt for the Roman Bath Co Ltd. The baths were an extremely short-lived venture, opening in late February 1863 and closing by December of that year. After the closure, a liquidation sale ensued, and the building was auctioned off in 1865, being bought by its own architect, Wyatt, for £2,700. [8] He rented out half of the building to the Pitt Club, and the other half to Orme's Billiards Rooms. [9] [10]
In 1907, the Club bought the entire building. Following a fire in the same year, the interior of the Club was extensively renovated. [11] There were further renovations in 1925, and the dining room was panelled in 1927. [12]
The large plaque of Pitt's head that adorns the pediment over the entrance to the Club was presented in February 1933 by General Sir Neill Malcolm. It had formerly been on a wall at Bowling-Green House in Putney, Pitt's place of death, which was pulled down in 1932. [13]
For most of the century after its purchase of 7a Jesus Lane, the Club occupied the whole of the prominent neo-classical building. The clubhouse was designated a Grade II listed building in 1950. [14] As the Club went through mounting financial difficulties in the 1990s, it sold a 25-year leasehold on the ground floor of its building to the Pizza Express chain in October 1997, although the ground floor had been in use as a restaurant (once known as Xanadu), since at least 1982. The Pizza Express closed during the Covid-19 pandemic, and from 2023 The Kibou Japanese Kitchen & Bar occupies the ground floor. [15] The Club now occupies the first floor of the building. [2] [16]
Notable members of the club include:
After 182 years of activity, the club allowed women to join in 2017 following a controversial vote whereby University alumni, who were life members of the Club, were barred from voting. [17] This came after a trial run in which female guests were allowed access in the daytime (having previously been allowed in only 'after dark except Sunday lunch').
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