An incomplete history of the Eccentric Club

Among the weirder and perhaps least sinister of the historic London clubs (at least compared to the Carlton, which has an area called “Cads’ Corner” where members can peer up the skirts of female guests climbing the staircase) is an institution called the Eccentric Club. Founded in 1781, it is one of the oldest surviving societies in London, and occupies a strange space in clubland history among the port-swilling cigar chompers of Pall Mall.