The Romney Street Group is a private discussion group that holds regular lunchtime meetings to hear invited speakers on current affairs and to discuss the subject of their talk.

The Group was founded in February 1917 by people close to government who were interested particularly in the shaping of reconstruction after the First World War. The Group’s name derives from an address in the centre of Westminster where it first met. For some years now the Group has held meetings in the Athenaeum. During the Covid-19 pandemic, a successful programme of virtual on-line meetings was developed.

The Group has a membership of about 120 people from a variety of different backgrounds, including the civil service, business, engineering, medicine, academia and the voluntary sector.

Pressures on working lives and lunchtimes mean that nowadays the membership is predominantly retired from full-time employment. However, the Group retains all the interest in public affairs that brought its members together in the first place.

The Group celebrated its centenary in April 2017 at a lunch when the guest speaker was the Rt. Hon. Alan Johnson.

Read more about the Group’s history
Find out about membership and How to join