The Canterbury Club

The Canterbury Club (established 1874) was the merchants’ rival to the land-owner dominated Christchurch Club. It's goal was to provide a similar environment for the trading gentlemen of the day where conversation might be more commercial and less 'horsey and sheepy' than that at the Christchurch Club. It's success has been borne out in an genteel history rolling towards 150 years of continuous hospitality.

Still on the same premises and still providing a very elegant balance of dining, fitness, accommodation, games and of course the requisite drinking, the club is now also open to appropriate female members. A description of as 'posh as all-get-out' might apply as the rules prescribe that it is 'posh as few-get-in'. A nomination, application and hefty fee and a jolly good social standing might secure one's entry. To be invited to visit as a guest of a member, is to gain a glimpse into a truly parochial, if now less patriarchal, colonial microcosm, where the gents are still sipping brandy at the bar.