AN EXCLUSIVE gentlemen's club - whose members include judges and leading businessmen - is celebrating its 200th anniversary.

The Chester City Club in St Peter's Churchyard, off Northgate Street, is the successor organisation of what was originally the committee of the Commercial Newsrooms.

During the 19th Century it was common for towns and cities to establish news clubs where like-minded professional men could meet, read the latest newssheets and exchange opinions.

In November 1806 a meeting was held where subscriptions of 30 guineas were invited from 'respectable inhabitants of the city' to build such a club together with an inn.

These buildings became the Commercial Newsrooms and Commercial Inn built at a cost of £2,711 and £1,377 respectively.

Designed by Thomas Harrison, architect of Chester Castle, the foundation stone of the Commercial Newsrooms was laid in May 1807 - a year when the slave trade was abolished within the British empire and oil and candles illuminated Chester - and completed the following year.

Club secretary David Auckland acknowledged the club, whose past presidents include businessman David Pickering and Hon Judge Elgan Edwards, generally liked to keep 'a low profile'.

But because of the nature of the occasion the Prince of Wales had been invited to the annual dinner in February as part of the bi-centenary celebrations which will also include a ball at the race course in June. Unfortunately, HRH was unable to attend.

'We will have the usual annual dinner at the Chester Grosvenor hotel which will be a bit special,' said Mr Auckland who added that the all-male club was 'a bit of an anachronism' in this day and age - although women do attend three times a year including at the annual ladies' cocktail party.

Membership of the club is about 250 but getting proposed, seconded and supported by the committee is no mean feat.

Games such as snooker and billiards are very much part and parcel of the club's life.

And there is a quaint tradition that any member entering the billiards room or reading room wearing a hat or overcoat must buy 'drinks all round to those present', with a similar penalty for any member going into the club without a tie. According to convention, a member must always buy drinks for his guests.