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Nairobi Club, Early days

We lack reliable evidence of exactly where the first Nairobi Club was sited but it was on the lower slopes of the hill, possibly at the end of what today is Bishop’s road and behind the Prisons Headquarters. The building was leased from Boustead & Clark Ltd. It was later taken over as the government secretariat and, on 12th September 1939 it caught fire, was gutted and valuable records of the Club’s earlier days were lost. Apparently not all of it burnt down and it is possible that the old wooden buildings which still stand next door to the prisons HQ were part of it. It had been vacated in early 1915 when the move was made to the new site, where the Club now stands. The Gymkhana section was always sited roughly where the cricket pavilion is today.
At foundation in 1901, the membership was predominantly official and railway, with 236 members headed by John Ainsworth, provincial commissioner. The original rules stated that all members ‘of the Mombasa Club on 2nd March 1901 shall be members of Nairobi Club’ and that ‘Members may resign but cannot form another Club in or near Nairobi’. The latter may have been of doubtful legality but may also have been a wise provision in a newly founded community.
By 1908, the official dominance of the Club had declined and subsequent rules omit any mention of officials being ex officio Committee members as the proportion of members drawn from the commercial sector increased. The Original building was apparently owned by Boustead & Ridley Ltd., who had built and owned Mombasa Club. Rex Boustead set up in business in Zanzibar around 1872. He later moved to Mombasa with his partner Ridley. Having built Mombasa Club, they apparently set up business in Nairobi and acquired land and property.
At the Annual General Meeting held on 28th February 1907, the secretary read ‘a circular letter’ which ‘had been issued the previous July regarding the erection of a new Club and the most suitable site for it’. Rex Boustead was probably the author.
Some members spoke in favour while others proposed the matter be postponed for a year. A resolution was carried which formed a sub Committee to ‘report on the size of the proposed Club house’ the probable cost thereof, the means proposed to be adopted for raising the money required and the probable effect on the subscriptions and the finances of the Club generally’. It was also proposed that should the sub Committee report in favour of a new Club, the site chosen should be on the Gymkhana ground.
The first mention of ‘a new stone building’ appears in the Club Committee minutes of April 1909 and was a regular topic until the first part of the present building was opened and occupied in 1915.
A Special General Meeting was held on 28th May to discuss the matter. It was decided that the project should proceed and that the building would be financed through debentures to the amount of 4000 pounds which, if not expressed in pounds sterling, would have been roughly equivalent to rather more than 50 000 rupees.
At the May 1909 Committee meeting, a sub Committee was formed to consider the legal aspect of the ‘new site’ and another sub Committee was to ‘draw up a financial statement on the reasons which make a move to the new site desirable’. A local architect was engaged to ‘check the figures of estimates for building on both sites’. Discussion went on for some months with little enthusiasm for the move being shown. A letter from ‘Messrs Boustead Bros’ was read at the Committee meeting on 7th September 1909, it was resolved that ‘Mr. Boustead be thanked for his proposal and also for his offer to see the Committee.
A printed circular to members, dated 18th February 1911, stated: ‘At a General Meeting held on the 16th October last, it was resolved as follows: That a good stone Club be erected as soon as possible on one of the sites suggested…and that a site be obtained in a central position in town for the ultimate erection of a lunch Club, when sufficient support can be obtained from members to justify its erection’. There is no further mention of the ‘lunch Club’ in town, so we may assume that ‘sufficient support’ was not obtained. There follows the proposal that Debentures ‘to the amount of 4,000 be issued to members only on the security of the Club property bearing interest at the rate of 8 percent’. The Committee recommended that ‘the sum of 5,000 pounds shall be expended on a new Club building on the approved site…’.
Also in 1912 Rex Boustead asked for six months’ notice to be given of surrender of premises. In November 1912, Mr. Robertson was engaged as architect. Progress was far from smooth; the architect had not ‘evinced sufficient zeal’ in the opinion of several members; there were continual problems with the contractor, Walter Gain, and in 1913 the Committee noted its concern at slow progress.
In November 1914, after a long financial analysis, it was decided ‘to carry on and finish the building’. It is clear that the project was riddled with problems throughout, and the railway authorities came to the rescue and saw the job through. In December 1914, the Committee decided that in view of the rapid approach of the completion of the new Club…..to write to Messrs Boustead & Clarke’ giving formal notice of ‘the intention to hand over the present premise at the end of January 1915’.
Debentures funded the new building and there was no shortage of applicants. In later years, several new issues and reissues were made. Debentures could only be redeemed in accordance with Trust deeds and were not freely disposable. When fund were available, a ballot was held for the redemption of any debentures which members wished to sell. Interest was paid half-yearly and Committee approval was required before a debenture could change hands.
The following years saw an extensive programme of development and it has not been easy to follow the sequence of new buildings and extensions.
At the 1927 AGM, Mr. A.B. Tannahill was able to report on the building programme: the widening of the parking space in front of the Club has been done; the main drainage system had been completed (drains were a perennial problem); the extensions to the front of the Club, including the new dining room with its amenities, were complete; tenders had been received and a contract signed for the completion of the remainder of the Club building and for a total bedroom accommodation for 24 bedrooms; estimates had been obtained for a gymkhana pavilion and two squash courts.