George Lambert was for many years principal scene-painter to Covent
Garden Theatre; and being a person of great respectability in character
and profession, he was often visited, while at work, by persons of
consideration. As it frequently happened that he was too much pressed by
business to leave the theatre for dinner, he contented himself with a
beef-steak, broiled upon the fire in the painting-room. In this humble
meal he was sometimes joined by his visitors: the conviviality of the
accidental meeting inspired the party with a resolution to establish a
club, which was accordingly done, under the title of “The Beef-Steak
Club;” and the party assembled periodically in the painting-room.[13]
The members were afterwards accommodated with a private apartment in
the theatre, where the meeting was held for many years; but, after
Covent Garden was last rebuilt, the place of meeting was changed to the
Shakspeare Tavern. It was then removed to the Lyceum Theatre, in the
Strand, on the destruction of which, by fire, in 1830, the place of
meeting was transferred to the Bedford Coffeehouse, in Covent Garden.
The _regime_ of the club is a course of beef-steaks, followed by stewed
cheese in silver dishes. The number of members is only twenty-four; and
the days of meeting are every Saturday, from November until the end of
June.