The Cape Town Club embodies two venerable Cape Town institutions, the City and Civil Service Club and the Here XVII Club. The former was itself the result of a merger in 1976 of Cape Town's two oldest clubs, the City Club (founded 1878) and the Civil Service Club (founded 1858). The club, originally in Queen Victoria Street, is now accommodated in Leinster Hall, a mid-nineteenth century manor house and a national monument, in the historic Gardens area on the edge of the city's central business district.

150 years of tradition

The club's new home was officially inaugurated on 31 March 2002 by Mr Tito Mboweni, the Governor of the South African Reserve Bank. Nestling in the spectacular Table Mountain bowl which overlooks Table Bay, the club house is within easy walking distance of the city's rejuvenated commercial centre, and the Company's Gardens, Cape Town's major inner-city park which was established by the Dutch settlers who founded the Cape settlement in 1652 as a victualling station for the ships of the Dutch East India Company as they plied their lucrative trade between Europe and the Far East.

The walk down the oak-lined avenue of the Company's Garden passes the stately South African parliamentary buildings and ends in the heart of the city, a short walk to the Cape Town International Convention Centre on the foreshore and onward to the Victoria and Alfred Waterfront, South Africa's most popular tourist destination.

In 2008, the club celebrates its 150th anniversary. To read more about plans for this auspicious milestone in our history, click here.