Group    From 22/6/1870 

Pickwick Bicycle Club

The oldest surviving cycling club in the world was founded at Downs Hotel, during the craze for the newly evolving bicycle, just 2 weeks after Charles Dickens died. The founding members honoured him, as many other societies had done, by adopting the eponymous name from his first, and very successful novel, 'The Posthumous Papers of the Pickwick Club'.

From Timeline (2020 link dead): "... Well, in 1870 six Hackney men had taken their shiny new bicycles out to the country for a ride. That evening, they sat in The Downs Hotel. As they chatted on about this new craze, they decided they would start up a bicycle club. There was a long talk about what they should call their new club.

Suddenly someone came up with the idea "The Pickwick Bicycle Club": Charles Dickens, the author of The Pickwick Papers, had just died and people were feeling very sad about that, so all six of the men agreed on the new name. They made a rule that all the members of the club would have a nickname chosen from Charles Dickens’ book - and that the club uniform would be "simply a white straw hat with a black and amber ribbon".

The Club was a huge success - they went on rides out to the countryside every weekend, enjoying their cycling long after the new inventions came in one by one (the car, the aeroplane, the motorbike .....).

Now, 137 years later, the Pickwick Bicycle Club is STILL going strong (men only - with a very long waiting list). The Club, started in Hackney all those years ago, is proud to be the oldest bicycle club in the whole world. They still keep to the same rules - wearing the hats and the nicknames from the book."

Book: 'History of the Pickwick Bicycle Club' by Walter E. Blake.

2020: Club still going strong.

2022: Ian Visits, reporting on an exhibition at the Charles Dickens Museum, includes a photograph of the front cover of the Members Register of the Pickwick Bicycle Club, 1909 - 1926. This gives two addresses for their HQ: 9(?) Rathbone Place and 18 Eldon Street, suggesting that the club moved during the period that the register covers.

Comments are provided by Facebook, please ensure you are signed in here to see them

This section lists the memorials where the subject on this page is commemorated:
Pickwick Bicycle Club

Commemorated ati

Pickwick Bicycle Club

Hackney Citizen 25 June 2014 gives the history of the club and explains "A co...

Read More

Other Subjects

Empire Day

Empire Day

Created by Reginald Brabazon, cleverly designed to coincide with Queen Victoria's birthday. In 1958 it was renamed Commonwealth Day and in 1977 the date moved to the second Monday in March.

Event, Community / Clubs

2 memorials
Kellaway's Funeral Service

Kellaway's Funeral Service

Firm of undertakers located in South East London.

Group, Community / Clubs

1 memorial
Anglo-Argentine Society

Anglo-Argentine Society

Founded in London. Its main objectives are the cultural interchange between Great Britain and Argentina and  building strong social and creative ties between both communities.

Group, Community / Clubs, Argentina

1 memorial
Wandsworth Council EMAS

Wandsworth Council EMAS

Wandsworth Ethnic Minority Achievement Service. it works in partnership with schools, governors, parents and colleagues in the Wandsworth Children and Young People's Services Department to ensure h...

Group, Community / Clubs, Nationalism

1 memorial
Worshipful Company of Innholders

Worshipful Company of Innholders

Taverns and alehouses provided drink and possibly food, whereas inns also provided bed and board for you and your horses.  Innholders received their first charter from Henry VIII in 1514 

Group, Community / Clubs, Food & Drink, Liveries & Guilds

1 memorial