In Great Britain and Ireland, especially in the 18th and 19th centuries, assembly rooms were gathering places for members of the higher social classes open to members of both sexes. At that time most entertaining was done at home and there were few public places of entertainment open to both sexes besides theatres (and there were few of those outside London). Upper class men had more options, including coffee houses and later gentlemen's clubs. This article is about the capital of England and the United Kingdom. ... A Street Cafe, Jerusalem, Henry Fenn (1838- ): steel engraving in Picturesque Palestine, ca 1875 A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or caf shares some of the characteristics of a bar, and some of the characteristics of a restaurant. ... The noted gentlemans Reform Club A Gentlemens club is a members club originally designed for male members of the English upper class. ...

Major sets of assembly rooms in London, in spa towns such as Bath and in important provincial cities such as York, were able to accommodate hundreds, or in some cases over a thousand people for events such as masquerades (masked balls), conventional balls, public concerts and assemblies (simply gatherings for conversation, perhaps with incidental music and entertainments). By later standards these were formal events: the attendees were usually screened to make sure no one of insufficient rank gained admittance; admission might be subscription only; and unmarried women were chaperoned. Nonetheless, assemblies played an important part in the marriage market of the day. For alternate meanings see Bath (disambiguation) Palladian Pulteney Bridge and the weir at Bath Bath is a city in south-west England, most famous for its baths fed by three hot springs. ... York shown within England Coordinates: , Sovereign state Constituent country Region Yorkshire and the Humber Ceremonial county North Yorkshire Admin HQ York City Centre Founded 71 City Status 71 Government  - Type Unitary Authority, City  - Governing body City of York Council  - Leadership: Leader & Executive  - Executive: Liberal Democrat  - MPs: Hugh Bayley (L) John...

A major set of assembly rooms consisted of a main room and several smaller subsidiary rooms such as card rooms, tea rooms and supper rooms. On the other hand in smaller towns a single large room attached to the best inn might serve for the occasional assembly for the local landed gentry. Landed gentry is a term traditionally applied in Britain to members of the upper class with country estates often (but not always) farmed on their behalf by others, and who might be without a peerage or other hereditary title. ...

Formal assemblies and the associated assembly rooms faded away in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as the range of places of public entertainment increased (for example public dance halls and nightclubs) and attitudes became more accepting of women from the higher social classes attending them. Also to some extent they were supplanted by the ballrooms of major hotels as British hotels became larger from the railway age onwards.

Examples

• Almack's - London's most exclusive assembly rooms.
• The Pantheon - an architecturally grander but more briefly fashionable set of assembly rooms in London.
• Bath Assembly Rooms - the assembly rooms in England's most fashionable spa.
• York Assembly Rooms - a notable building designed by Lord Burlington.
• Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh
• Assembly Rooms, Surbiton
• New Assembly and Concert Rooms, 1796, Glasgow, later the home of the Athenaeum (demolished by new owners, the General Post Office, in 1892)
• Assembly Rooms, Newcastle - built in 1776 in Newcastle upon Tyne, one of the finest examples of Georgian architecture in Newcastle's Grainger Town.

Londons high society at Almacks. ... Wyatts Pantheon in Oxford Street, London The Pantheon is a building on Oxford Street in London. ... The Bath Assembly Rooms are a set of elegant assembly rooms located in the heart of the World Heritage City of Bath in England which are now open to the public as a visitor attraction. ... The York Assemby Rooms is a building in the city of York, UK which was used a place for high class social gatherings in the city. ... Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and 4th Earl of Cork (April 25, 1694 – 1753) , born in Yorkshire, was a descendant of Richard Boyle, 1st Earl of Cork. ... For other uses, see Glasgow (disambiguation). ... RSAMD The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama (RSAMD), founded in 1845 by the Glasgow Educational Association, is a university of music and drama in Glasgow, Scotland. ... The British General Post Office (GPO) was officially established in 1660 by Charles II and it eventually grew to combine the functions of both the state postal system and telecommunications carrier. ... This article is about a city in the United Kingdom. ... // Newcastle refers primarily to the following places: Newcastle upon Tyne, England Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia Newcastle (or New Castle) can refer to the following places: Newcastle, New South Wales Division of Newcastle, an electoral district in the Australian House of Representatives, in New South Wales, located around the city. ... // Grainger Town is the historic heart of Newcastle upon Tyne. ...

Public gardens

London also had a number of outdoor "public gardens" where similar entertainments took place. They were more commercial establishments and tended to have less exclusive rules on admission. Each had at least one major indoor space for balls and the like. See: Marylebone Gardens, Vauxhall Gardens, Ranelagh Gardens and Cremorne Gardens. Marylebone or Marybone Gardens was a London pleasure garden. ... A prospect of Vauxhall Gardens in 1751. ... An 18th century print showing the exterior of the Rotunda at Ranelagh Gardens and part of the grounds. ... Cremorne Gardens was the name of two pleasure gardens established in England and Australia in the mid 19th century by James Ellis. ...