Cobden Club

Founded in 1866 by Thomas Bayley Potter[1] for believers in Free Trade doctrine, it was named in honour of Richard Cobden, who had died the year before.

The popularity of Temperance reform among members also made it unappealing to potential recruits with the passing years.

In 1958 the Cobden Club, by now moribund, was taken over by the classical liberal activist Oliver Smedley.

[2] Like many other clubs, it went through substantial financial difficulties in the late 1970s, and closed at the end of that decade.

It is unrelated to the Cobden Working Men's Club founded in Kensal Town, London in 1880 (other than their both having been named after the same person).