Petre Mais claims it was founded in 1780 and was limited to 30 men,[1] and Viscount Long, who was a member in 1875, described it as "an old Oxford institution, with many good traditions".

The Bullingdon Club dinners were the occasion of a great display of exuberant spirits, accompanied by a considerable consumption of the good things of life, which often made the drive back to Oxford an experience of exceptional nature".

[10] Former pupils of public schools such as Eton, Harrow, St. Paul's, Stowe, Radley, Oundle, Shrewsbury, Rugby and Winchester form the bulk of its membership.

[12] Following negative media attention and the club's apparent depiction in the play Posh and its film adaptation The Riot Club—membership has supposedly dwindled.

Nearby non-member students heckled the club as they left, with one even playing "Yakety Sax" (the theme song for The Benny Hill Show).

[15] The club has always been noted for its wealthy members, grand banquets, and boisterous rituals, including the vandalisation of restaurants, public houses, and college rooms,[16] complemented by a tradition of on-the-spot payment for damage.

Infamously on 12 May 1894, after dinner, Bullingdon members smashed almost all the glass of the lights and 468 windows in Peckwater Quad of Christ Church, along with the blinds and doors of the building, and again on 20 February 1927.

[17] While still Prince of Wales, Edward VIII had a certain amount of difficulty in getting his parents' permission to join the Bullingdon on account of the club's reputation.

[9][21] Andrew Gimson, biographer of Boris Johnson, reported about the club in the 1980s: "I don't think an evening would have ended without a restaurant being trashed and being paid for in full, very often in cash.

"[12] In December 2005, Bullingdon Club members smashed 17 bottles of wine, "every piece of crockery," and a window at the 15th-century White Hart pub in Fyfield, Oxfordshire.

Members dress for their annual lllClub dinner in bespoke tailored tailcoats in dark navy blue, with a matching velvet collar, offset with ivory silk lapel revers, brass monogrammed buttons, a mustard waistcoat, and a sky blue bow tie.

[29] Traditionally when they played cricket, members "were identified by a ribbon of blue and white on their straw hats, and by stripes of the same colours down their flannel trousers".

On several occasions in the past, when the club was registered, the University proctors suspended it on account of the rowdiness of members' activities,[2] including suspensions in 1927 and 1956.

In his retirement speech as proctor, Professor of Geology Donald Fraser noted an incident which, not being on University premises, was outside their jurisdiction: "some students had taken habitually to the drunken braying of 'We are the Bullingdon' at 3 a.m. from a house not far from the Phoenix Cinema.

OUCA president Ben Etty stated that the club's "values and activities had no place in the modern Conservative Party'".

A photograph taken in 1987 depicting David Cameron and Boris Johnson among other members of the club, including Jonathan Ford of the Financial Times,[37] and retail CEO Sebastian James is the best-known example.

[12][39] A photograph taken in 1988, also depicting the future British Prime Minister David Cameron, this time as Club President and standing in the centre of the group, later emerged.

[40] A photograph of the club taken in 1992 depicted George Osborne, Nathaniel Rothschild, David Cameron's cousin Harry Mount and Ocado founder Jason Gissing.

A fictional Oxford dining society inspired by clubs like the Bullingdon forms the basis of the play Posh by Laura Wade, staged in April 2010 at the Royal Court Theatre, London.

In one episode of Frasier, characters Frasier Crane and Alan Cornwall talk about how they tried to join the Bullingdon Club during their Oxford days, but their plans were cut short when after getting blackout drunk, they snuck into the library and tried to steal Oscar Wilde's walking stick, only to end up getting tackled by a group of librarians and forever banned from the club.