Kit-Cat Club

The Kit-Cat Club (sometimes Kit Kat Club) was an early 18th-century English club in London with strong political and literary associations. ^[1] Members of the club were committed Whigs. They met at the Trumpet tavern in London and at Water Oakley in the Berkshire countryside.

The first meetings were held at a tavern in Shire Lane (parallel with Bell Yard and now covered by the Royal Courts of Justice) run by an innkeeper called Christopher Catt. He gave his name to the mutton pies known as "Kit Cats" from which the name of the club is derived.

The club later moved to the Fountain Tavern on The Strand (now the site of Simpson's-in-the-Strand), and latterly into a room specially built for the purpose at Barn Elms, the home of the secretary Jacob Tonson.^[2] In summer, the club met at the Upper Flask, Hampstead Heath.

^ Timbs, John (1872), "The Kit-Kat Club", Clubs and club life in London, London: John Camden Hotten, pp. 47–53
^ Greater London. A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places. Volume 2 – Edward Walford ISBN 0-543-96787-5

[1] Timbs, John (1872), "The Kit-Kat Club", Clubs and club life in London, London: John Camden Hotten, pp. 47–53

[2] Greater London. A Narrative of Its History, Its People, and Its Places. Volume 2 – Edward Walford ISBN 0-543-96787-5

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