Overview The Albany Burns Club was founded by a few members of the soon-to-be-defunct Albany Bowling Club in order ‘[t]o keep up the old and valued friendships that were made on its turn’ (‘Club Notes’, ‘ALBANY BURNS CLUB’, in Annual Read More …
Type of Society/Group: Men
Albion Mutual Improvement Union
Overview The evidence for this society comes from the syllabus for the Spring 1862 session and from the three extant issues of a magazine produced in manuscript by its members (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). The ‘Order of Readers’ at the Read More …
Anderston Social Club (not the same as the Anderston Club)
Overview Anderston is an area just over a mile to the west of Glasgow’s city centre. (For more information about this area, see Michael Moss’s article, ‘Industrial Revolution: 1770s to 1830s. Neighbourhoods. Anderston‘ on The Glasgow Story website). According to John M’Dowall, Read More …
Auld Clinkum Burns Club
Overview There is very little currently known about this club. According to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, members met on the first Saturday of each month at an establishment on St. Vincent Street (to the west of the Read More …
Bank Burns Club
Overview This Burns club met weekly on Saturday evenings at Mrs. M’Arthur’s in 1883, later the Club Rooms at M’Culloch’s in 1892, both of which are listed as 109 Argyle Street, before moving in 1896 (at least) to Whyte and Read More …
Barns O’ Clyde Burns Club, Clydebank
Overview Clydebank is located to the west of Glasgow and is situated on the north of the River Clyde. The Visit Scotland website offers a brief history of the area: ‘Clydebank is the historic heartland of the Scottish shipbuilding industry […] During Read More …
Barony Mutual Improvement Society (later became Barony Young Men’s Association) (not the same as Barony Free Church Literary Society)
Overview Members of this literary society were most likely part of the congregation of the Barony Church (Church of Scotland), which was located in the Townhead area of Glasgow and near the cathedral. (For more information about the church, see Read More …
Bridgeton Burns Club
Overview Bridgeton is an area to the east of Glasgow’s city centre. (For more information about this area, see Gordon Adams’s chapter, [Bridgeton & Dalmarnock], ‘Historical Background‘, on the East Glasgow History website.) The Bridgeton Burns Club’s website gives the group’s earliest Read More …
Brougham Literary Club (possibly same as Brougham Literary Institute)
Overview It is possible that this society was named for Henry Brougham (1778-1868), a highly influential advocate of social reform who helped to found the Edinburgh Review, and whose utilitarian philosophy was behind his Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge. The Read More …
Caledonia Burns Club (not same as Caledonian Burns Club)
Overview The ‘Club Notes’ in the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory for 1901 includes this club’s Constitution, which gives its objects: ‘The objects of the Club shall be to foster an intimate acquaintance with the works of Burns, and Read More …
Caledonian Burns Club (aka Glasgow Caledonian Burns Club) (not same as Caledonia Burns Club, Glasgow)
Overview There is little currently known about this club. According to the Annual Burns Chronicle and Club Directory, in 1898, the group met every other Thursday. From 1899 until 1912 (at least), this was changed to every other Tuesday from Read More …
Calton Wesleyan-Methodist Congregational Young Men’s Society
Overview Calton is a district just to the east of Glasgow’s city centre. (For more information about this area, see Gordon Adams’s article, ‘Calton’ on the East Glasgow History website.) Members of this young men’s society were most likely part of the Read More …
City of Glasgow Literary Society
Overview The object of this society was its members’ intellectual improvement through the reading and discussion of essays written by society members, but this was to exclude the subject of religious doctrine. A couple of examples of the essays Read More …
Co-operative Burns Club
Overview This Burns club met on the first Saturday of each month between October and May at 8pm. Its meetings were held at various local restaurants (e.g. in Room No. 10 at M’Culloch’s Restaurant, Croy place, 9 Maxwell Street, at Read More …
Dennistoun Jolly Beggars Burns Club
Overview Dennistoun is an area located to the east of Glasgow’s city centre. (For more information about this area, see Ian R. Mitchell’s article, ‘Dennistoun: No Mean Streets‘ on the Glasgow West End website). There is not much currently known about this Read More …
Eclectic Literary Society (not same as St. John’s Parish Church Eclectic Literary Association)
Overview There is not a great deal currently known about this society. The Glasgow Post Office directory offers a list of office bearers in 1854 (these are also given in the newspaper articles listed below), while the articles in the Read More …
Eglinton Young Men’s Literary Association
Overview This group belonged to the Eglinton Congregational Church, which was located on 341 Eglinton Street, south of the River Clyde, in the Laurieston area. (For more information on this area, see ‘Gorbals, Glasgow. Laurieston Guide‘ on the ScotCities website). Designed by John Read More …
Free Anderston Church Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Society (also includes the Free Anderston Church Literary Society)
Overview This society was based at Anderston Church on University Avenue in Glasgow’s West End. Members of this society were most likely part of the congregation. (For more information on this church, see ‘Glasgow — Anderston‘ on the Ecclegen website.) Meetings were held Read More …
Free Church Students’ Literary Association
Overview This association met on Friday evenings at 7.30 in the Greek Class Room of the Free Church Presbytery House, which was located on Holmhead Street. Its object (i.e. the purpose for meeting) was its members’ intellectual as well as Read More …
Free St. Peter’s Young Men’s Association (later became Free St. Peter’s Literary Society)
Overview Members of this society were part of the congregation of St. Peter’s Free Church, located at 53 Mains Street (now Blythswood Street), off Argyle Street in the city centre. (For more information on this church, see John Goodwin’s History of Read More …
Gas Workmen’s Institution
Overview The information on this society comes from two issues of The Glasgow Mechanics’ Magazine. The May 7th issue for 1825 provides a good overview of this group: ‘The Gas Workmen’s Institution. – Out of these public associations has arisen Read More …
Glasgow Addisonian Literary Society
Overview Alexander Smith (1829-1867) was a well-known working-class Scottish poet, and was one of the founding members and Secretary of this society. (For more information on Smith, see, for example, ‘Alexander Smith (1829 – 1867)‘ on the Scottish Poetry Library Read More …
Glasgow Ballad Club
Overview The founder and first President of this club was William Freeland, who served from 1876 to 1903. There were 11 original members. The Glasgow Post Office directory for 1902-1903 gives a good overview of this club and its activities: Read More …
Glasgow Bute Literary Institute
Overview Bute, or the Isle of Bute, is an island in the Firth of Clyde. Bute is also a county that comprises this island and number of surrounding islands. This society is a type of nineteenth-century county association. In the stricter Read More …
Glasgow Clerical Literary Society
Overview This society is particularly interesting as some of its members were ministers of churches that later ‘came out’ in 1843; that is, their congregations broke away from the established church in what is known as the Disruption of 1843, Read More …
Glasgow Coleridge Club
Overview There is very little information currently known about this society. The only details we have come from the minutes of the Glasgow Addisonian Literary Society, a group discussed in Simon Berry’s Applauding Thunder (2013). According to Berry, in 1848, Read More …
Glasgow Jewish Literary and Social Society (currently unknown if this is same as Glasgow Jewish Young Men’s Institute)
Overview The information that we currently have for the Glasgow Jewish Literary and Social Society comes from a 1904 catalogue of the society’s library. Use of the library was restricted to society members, but was free of charge. The library Read More …
Glasgow Philological and Literary Club (aka This Club of Ours, or ‘Ours’ Club)
Overview According to club records, this group was founded in 1871 by William Sloan, and its ten original members were dominies (Scots for schoolmasters). Meetings took place on Friday nights on North Street (in the Anderston area, to the west Read More …
Glasgow Shakspere Club
Overview This club was formed in Glasgow as it was thought there was a need for the city to have its own society similar to the ones then running in Edinburgh and beyond. The object of the club was to Read More …
Glasgow United Young Men’s Christian Association
Overview The Glasgow Young Men’s Society for Religious Improvement was founded in 1824. In 1877, it amalgamated with the Glasgow Young Men’s Christian Association (aka the G.Y.M.C.A., instituted in 1841, but this date is debatable) to become the Glasgow United Read More …
Glasgow University Dialectic Society
Overview The online catalogue of the University of Glasgow Archives Services, Archives Hub, offers a summary of this society and its activities: ‘Administrative / Biographical History Glasgow University Dialectic Society was instituted in 1861 at the University of Glasgow, Scotland, Read More …
Glasgow Young Men’s Christian Association
Overview The Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) was formed in London in 1841. (For a history of this association, see ‘History and Heritage’, on the YMCA website.) There is a discrepancy in the records as to the start date of the Glasgow Read More …
Glasgow Young Men’s Society for Religious Improvement
Overview This society was instituted in 1824. In 1877, it amalgamated with the Glasgow Young Men’s Christian Association (aka G.Y.M.C.A., instituted in 1841, although this date is debatable) to become the Glasgow United Young Men’s Christian Association in 1877. In Read More …
Govan Parish Young Men’s Association (later became Govan Literary Association, and then Govan Parish Young Men’s Literary Association)
Overview This society was based in Govan, an area south of the River Clyde and southwest of the city centre. (For more information about this area, see Gerald Blaikie’s article, ‘Govan, Glasgow. Architecture & History‘ on the ScotCities website.) The group weekly met in Read More …
Greyfriars Young Men’s Institute (of Greyfriars U.P. Church)
Overview This group of working-class young men met fortnightly on Tuesdays at 8pm in the Committee Rooms (and later in the North Hall) at Greyfriars United Presbyterian Church. The church was located at 186 Albion Street in the city centre Read More …
Holyrood Literary Society
Overview This group is an interesting example of a literary society whose history was not straight-forward, being the result of alliances made and broken — societies being formed, amalgamated with other societies, dissolved and/or re-formed as new clubs — over Read More …
Hope Street Free Gaelic Church Literary Society
Overview This society was made up of young men from the congregation of the Hope Street Free Gaelic Church. (For more information on this church, see ‘Glasgow — Hope Street‘ on the Ecclegen website, and ‘Glasgow, 58 Waterloo Street, Gaelic Free Church‘ on Read More …
Hutchesontown Free Church Young Men’s Literary Society
Overview Hutchesontown is an area to the south of the River Clyde and forms part of the Gorbals. (For more information about the area, see ‘Gorbals , Glasgow. Origins & History‘ on the ScotCities website.) Members of this society were most likely Read More …
Kent Road United Presbyterian Church Young Men’s Institute
Overview This society was made up of young men from the congregation of the Kent Road United Presbyterian Church, located near Charing Cross, to the west of the city centre. (For more information on this church, see ‘Kent Road UP Church‘ Read More …
Kintyre Young Men’s Literary Association (later resurrected as Kintyre Literary Association)
Overview Kintyre is a peninsula on the west coast of Scotland. This society is a type of nineteenth-century county association. In the stricter sense, county associations were groups whose members (or whose parents) were former residents of counties across Scotland who Read More …
Lansdowne Young Men’s Christian Association (aka L.Y.M.C.A.)
Overview This group met in the early 1890s (at least) at Lansdowne United Presbyterian Church in the more affluent West End of Glasgow. (For more information on this church, see ‘Lansdowne UP Church‘ on TheGlasgowStory website.) The association was one branch Read More …
Literary and Commercial Society of Glasgow
Overview The Glasgow Literary Society was founded in 1752 and changed its name at the beginning of the nineteenth century to the Literary and Commercial Society of Glasgow. They changed premises as well, moving from the University of Glasgow (at Read More …
Literary Debating Society
Overview The information that we have on this society comes from the magazine that was produced by the group members (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). In the three issues that were produced, there is no mention of how often the group Read More …
New Literary and Philosophical Society
Overview The formation of this new group is discussed in an article published in 1824 that also included a summary of a number of different Glasgow literary societies. The foundations of New Literary and Philosophical Society were laid out at Read More …
New Literary Club (later became Literary Twenty-One Club)
Overview This group is an interesting example of a literary society whose history was not straight-forward, being the result of alliances made and broken — societies being formed, amalgamated with other societies, dissolved and/or re-formed as new clubs — over Read More …
Original Union Club
Overview There is very little information currently known about this club. The information that we have comes from a newspaper clipping from the ‘Times’, possibly the Glasgow Evening Times. This newspaper article was placed in a scrapbook complied by William Young Read More …
Palaver Society
Overview The first meeting of this society was held at the Ramshorn Inn (which might be the same as the Ramshorn Bar, 437 Arglye Street, in the city centre) at the end of May 1831. (For more information on this Read More …
Partick Burns Club
Overview Partick is an area in the West End of Glasgow. (For more information on this area, see the entry for ‘Partick, Glasgow. Origins & History‘ on the ScotCities website). This was a fairly large Burns club, having 213 members in 1896. Membership Read More …
Queen’s Park, St. George’s UP, UK Church Literary Institute
Overview Queen’s Park is located in the south side of Glasgow. (For more information about this park and the surrounding area, see ‘Queen’s Park‘ on The Glasgow Story website, and ‘Queen’s Park: A short history‘, on the Friends of Queen’s Park website). Read More …
Renfield Free Church Young Men’s Society for Mutual Improvement (currently unknown if this is the same society as Young Men’s Association [Renfield Street United Presbyterian Church])
Overview In the early nineteenth century, the East Campbell Street Old Light congregationalists moved around to different premises before a church was built for them in 1823 on the corner of Renfield Street and Gordon Street. In 1858, a new Read More …
Renwick Free Church Branch Glasgow United Young Men’s Christian Association
Overview The congregation of this church was known as the Southern Reformed Presbyterian Congregation and their church was located on Salisbury Street, located in the south side of the city in the Laurieston area. (For more information on this area, Read More …
Rosebery Burns Club (not same as Kilbirnie Rosebery Burns Club)
Overview This was a fairly large Burns club, with 94 members on the roll in 1893, and it nearly doubled its size in 1902, with 180 members reported. The group met from September until April on Tuesdays at 8pm (later Read More …
The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow (not the same as Philosophical Society, 1795-1796?)
Overview This group began as the Glasgow Philosophical Society and later became the Philosophical Society of Glasgow. A Royal Charter was granted in 1901. The Royal Philosophical Society of Glasgow’s website offers an excellent summary of the long history of this Read More …
Sandyford Burns Club
Overview Sandyford is an area located just to the west of Charing Cross. The Glasgow and District Burns Association website gives a brief history of the founding of this club: ‘The clubs’ [sic] motto is taken from the poem “Contented Wi Read More …
Sandyford Church Literary Association (appears to be the same as Sandyford Established Association)
Overview Sandyford is an area located just to the west of Charing Cross. The evidence for this group comes solely from the manuscript magazine that its members founded. At the very end of the 1883 issue is transcribed an ‘Extract Read More …
Spoutmouth Bible Institution (St James’ Free Church) Mutual Improvement Association
Overview A manuscript magazine was produced by this institution in 1873 (see ‘Additional Notes’ below), but it is unclear if it was the production of a society formed within the organisation, or the result of a group effort by those Read More …
St. Columba Literary Association (later became St. Columba Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Association)
Overview Members of this association were most likely part of the congregation of St. Columba’s Gaelic Chapel in Glasgow. The National Records of Scotland’s online catalogue offers a brief history of the church: ‘Admin history A separate place of worship Read More …
St. Rollox Burns Club
Overview St. Rollox was located in the north of the city in the Springburn area. The area was home of the St Rollox Railway Works, and St Rollox Chemical Works, which was reportedly the largest in Europe. (For more information on Read More …
Strathbungo Parish Literary Association (aka Strathbungo Parish Church Literary Society)
Overview Strathbungo is an area in the south side of Glasgow. Members of this association were most likely part of the congregation of the Strathbungo Parish Church, located at 605 Pollokshaws Road. The earlier church was replaced by a new building Read More …
Tam O’ Shanter Club (aka the Tam O’ Shanter Burns Club)
Overview According to the 1882 Glasgow Post Office directory, the object (i.e. purpose for meeting) of this Burns club was ‘the annual celebration of the birth-day of Robert Burns; occasional reunions for the cultivation of social and intellectual intercourse amongst Read More …
The Thirteen Club (aka The Glasgow Thirteen)
Overview From the start, this club was intended to have a small, exclusive membership limited to 13 members. Discussions were to be on literature and art. The first meeting was held on Friday, 15 January 1891 at Moir’s Restaurant on Read More …
University Printing Office Literary & Scientific Institution
Overview The staff at the University Printing Office of the University of Glasgow followed the model set by the Gas Workmen’s Institution (1825-?) in setting up their own institution (see ‘Additional Notes’ below). A library was formed first and began Read More …
Wellpark Free Church Literary Society
Overview The Wellpark Free Church was located in Dennistoun, an area in the east end of the city. (For more information about this church, see ‘Glasgow — Wellpark‘ on the Ecclegen website, and Gordon Adams’s article, ‘Wellpark Church of Scotland‘ on the East Glasgow Read More …
Western Scientific Association
Overview The information that we have on this society comes solely from a newspaper article attributed to Thomas Lugton and written over fifty years after the group’s last recorded activity. The article states that this association was founded in 1843 Read More …
Young Men’s Association (Renfield Street United Presbyterian Church) (currently unknown if this is same society as Free Renfield Literary Society)
Overview Members of this society were most likely part of the congregation of the Renfield Street United Presbyterian Church. The church, completed in 1848, was located on the corner of Renfield Street and Sauchiehall Street. (For more information about this Read More …
Young Men’s Friendly Society, St. Mary’s Branch, Glasgow, Debating Society
Overview Members of this debating society were most likely members of St. Mary’s Episcopal Church, which was located on Great Western Road, in the West End of Glasgow. (For a history of this church, see ‘History‘, on the St Mary’s Cathedral, Read More …