Walter Bradford Woodgate - Vincent's Club

Vincent's Club

Woodgate’s major non-aquatic accomplishment at Oxford was the founding in 1863 of Vincent’s Club (named for the landlord who rented the rooms), in reaction against the Union Society. The Union at the time barred smoking and drinking and, in Woodgate’s view, “went through the farce of socially ‘vetting’ every candidate, and after all, passing all sorts and conditions of men as ‘sound,’ despite notorious antecedents.” So he and his friends made Vincent’s selective (“a magic number — 100 — to give prestige”) and offered beer, tea, and coffee, all for free lest the proctors intervene were drinks “for sale.” An immediate success, Vincent’s climbed straight to the top of the undergraduate social heap. Among its later presidents were rowers Bankes, Nickalls, and Cotton.

Woodgate created Vincent's very much in his own image. He wanted an elite social club of 'the picked hundred of the University, selected for all round qualities; social, physical and intellectual'. He loathed the Union, which he felt made only a pretence at selectivity, and finally he gathered forty of his friends and rented rooms at 90, High Street, above Vincent's, the printers and publisher's shop. If invited to subscribe, the 30 shillings per term included free beer, coffee and tea, none of which could be had at the Union, even for payment; and free postage on letters. Smoking was also allowed, again in contrast to the Union, and dogs were admitted to the clubroom, presumably to accommodate Woodgate's fox terrier, Jenny, a notorious shredder of trouser legs.