Club History

The Queen Adelaide Club began at the initiative of Mrs Margaret Annie Box early in 1909.

Mrs Box gained the support of the most eminent women in South Australia; and together they secured a location, which the Club still occupies today –  on the corner of North Terrace and Stephens Place. The premier location places us directly from Government House, and just five minutes’ walk from the Adelaide Club; then only a little further from Parliament House: the geographical apex of social and economic power and pleasure.

Here, Margaret and her supporters established an exclusive residential club ‘for social and non-political purposes’; a place, as a later president was to observe, carried on by ‘a few women who wanted a social centre with a certain standard of living and were prepared to pay for it’. They named their club after Queen Adelaide, wife of William IV of England, who was already represented in the name of their city.

A century later, our membership is larger and more democratic. The Club is no longer residential; the neighbouring Adelaide Club offers mixed residential accommodation. Today the Club is connected to a network of distinguished residential clubs across the world, and offers its members an ideal environment in which to play bridge, to enjoy discussions organised by an array of interest groups; and – above all – to savour its justly prized cuisine, and excellent wines.