Birmingham Book Club

During the 18th century Midlands Enlightenment, the Radical and Unitarian allegiance of its members give it a national significance.

[4] The club met at Freeth's Coffee House at the Leicester Arms on the corner of Bell Street and Lease Lane in Birmingham from at least 1758.

[5] John Freeth announced club dinners to its members with rhyming invitations.

[4] Liberal and radical, as much concerned with politics as with books,[4] the club formed a focus for local support for John Wilkes between 1768 and 1774,[7] and for opposition to the Ministry of Lord North during the 1770s and 1780s.

[8] The society held an annual sale of its books,[4] and its members provided the nucleus of subscribers to the Birmingham Library which was founded in 1779.

John Freeth and his Circle or Birmingham Men of the Last Century - members of the Birmingham Book Club pictured in 1792 by John Eckstein .