Birmingham Bean Club

rdf:langString Birmingham Bean Club

rdf:langString The Birmingham Bean Club is a loyalist dining club founded in Birmingham, England shortly after the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, serving as a forum for confidential discussion between the leading Tory citizens of the growing industrial town and the gentlemen of the surrounding counties. It both reflected and encouraged the 18th century establishment of Birmingham as the political hub of the surrounding region, seeking to accommodate the political implications of the development of Birmingham within the framework of the 18th century constitution. By the end of the century the club was described as including "representatives of the Magnates of the County, the Gentlemen and Tradespeople of the town, the Clergy and the officers from the Barracks, and the principal representative actors from the local theatre". In a town with a tradition of Radicalism and an influential Nonconformist minority, the Bean Club was strongly Tory and exclusively Anglican. No Dissenter was ever admitted, and its membership excluded not just influential local Whig aristocrats such as the Earl of Warwick, the Earl of Conway and Lord Archer, but also more moderate Tories such as the Earl of Aylesford, and influential conservative Birmingham Anglicans who were closely associated with Dissenters, such as Matthew Boulton and Samuel Garbett.