Garrick Club

The Garrick Club is a private members' club in London, founded in 1831 as a club for "actors and men of refinement to meet on equal terms". It is one of the oldest members' clubs in the world. Its 1,500 members include many actors, writers, journalists, leading arts practitioners, at least 10 serving members of parliament (MPs) and dozens of members of the House of Lords, many heads of public institutions alongside businessmen, and at least 160 senior legal professionals and members of the judiciary including King's Counsel (KCs), Supreme Court and Court of Appeals judges. For most of its history, the Garrick was a gentlemen's club with membership customarily restricted to men. However, in May 2024 club members voted to acknowledge that existing rules had never explicitly excluded women as members and that there was no impediment to their election.

New candidates must be proposed by an existing member and seconded by another member, before supporting signatures are collected from at least 30 other members. The candidate then goes in front of a series of committees followed by a secret vote on membership. According to the club website, the original assurance of the committee is "that it would be better that ten unobjectionable men should be excluded than one terrible bore should be admitted".

The exclusion of women from membership generated disagreement within the club and criticism from wider society, especially as many figures were seen as members of the British establishment, or cultural elite; this criticism increased after a membership list was published in March 2024. In May 2024, the club voted to accept women as members for the first time.