The Calves’ Head Club

A club of republicans was said to mark 30 January, the day Charles I was executed, with a mocking feast of calves’ heads. In 1735 some young noblemen and gentlemen calling themselves the Calves’ Head Club met at a tavern in Suffolk Street and threw a calf’s head wrapped in a napkin onto a bonfire. The crowd outside, given strong beer at first, took offence at the toasts, smashed the windows and forced its way in until the guards were called. Chambers doubts the older tales of the club and thinks it broke up after the riot.