The Whitefriars Club

Towards the end of 1867, a dozen or so journalists—who had been dining and discoursing regularly—realised that they were, in essence, an exclusive dining club. They decided to name it after the ancient ecclesiastical precinct of the Whitefriars, sometimes known as Alsatia, after the ‘debatable land’ between Germany and France. This mirrored the lawless region from the shadow of the...