The mainspring of our Club is lunchtimes between Tuesday and Friday, starting around noon-12:30pm in the Grundy Room, the members’ bar. Most members will have adjourned for lunch in the Halliday Room, the members’ dining room, by 1-1:15pm. Lunch finishes when it does! On occasions, members may be asked to vacate the Halliday Room at around 4.30pm if the Club has a large early evening function. Your co-operation in this regard is important – thank you!
Drinks and table wines are usually bought in ’rounds’; it usually equals out during the lunch. Please be generous and pay your way, gentlemen! Members who prefer not to get in a round may declare the ‘one o’clock’ rule and buy drinks for themselves.
Members and guests should address each other by their preferred name (do not apologise for not remembering others’ names – merely ask again!)
Members should fill places at one table at a time if appropriate. If you wish to sit privately, please advise the staff and a separate can be set up for you and your privacy will be respected.
Mobile phones are not allowed in any of the club rooms unless you wish to use in ‘vibrate mode’ only. Any calls MUST be taken, or made, outside the public areas. Any breach will result in a sanction of a bottle of wine for each table.
Members must always sign in guests in the Visitors’ Book. Guests are not normally allowed to be signed in by a member more than four times per year, or as per the specific conditions under Rule 10.
All “special” lunches are publicised in the Club Diary, on the Club website (www.artists-club.com), and in regular news bulletins from the Chair of Events, as are all our other events (dinners and trips). Special lunches including Speaker lunches, Mixed lunches and Golfers’ lunches are held several times a year. The Last Friday of the Month lunches are a regular event; they often occur on the last Friday (but not always!). You and your guests are welcome at any lunch.
Mixed Arts Lunches are held through the year to launch new art exhibitions curated by our Chairman of Arts.
The Club dress code is clear. Members and Guests should attend at all times dressed in a manner which does not offend the Club’s traditions and other members. In general, this should mean the wearing of a suit or jacket, conventional shirt tucked in, and appropriate trousers and shoes – definitely NOT denim jeans and trainers, etc. The wearing of a tie on normal lunchtimes is optional but both encouraged and widely practised. Members and guests must not proceed beyond the Manager’s desk wearing overcoats, hats or scarves.
Members or guests must NOT enter the dining room without a jacket. In exceptionally warm conditions, the President or senior Past President present may allow gentlemen to remove their jackets.
On formal lunches, such as the Civic Lunch, the Armed Forces’ lunch and the Remembrance Sunday lunch, the dress code is more formal (a lounge suit and tie). Dinners are generally formal (dinner suit).
Guests should always be advised of the dress code before attending to prevent possible embarrassment to themselves or others.
Martyn Bracewell
Honorary Secretary
January 2026
