The Roman Sundays seal: a charioteer driven by a three-headed hound, Roman Sundays, Est. MMXXVI

The home of the London Sunday

Est. MMXXVI · London

Would you give this place your Sunday?

A private club for the London Sunday. Its inspectors visit the city's pubs and members' clubs anonymously, and rule on every one. Membership is by application.

Note: owing to the Secretary’s ongoing dispute with a carvery in Clapham, applications are currently read on alternate Sundays.

Apply for membership

A pub table on a Sunday afternoon: a pint of stout, two whiskies, a deck of cards and a tweed cap resting on a copy of the Roman Sundays guide

The founding

Every good Sunday descends from Rome.

The Romans understood the long lunch. A table in the shade, something poured, nobody hurrying anybody, and the afternoon given over entirely to it.

Rome had the forum. London has the pub. The Club was founded to tell a good one from a great one, and to keep the Roman Sunday alive in a city that rains.

An engraving of the Capitoline Wolf with the twins Romulus and Remus

The ledger

One question, asked of every house.

Kitchens are judged on what comes out of the kitchen. Wet houses on what's poured, and whether you'd stay. Clubs on the whole Sunday.

326Houses

114Kitchens

186Wet houses

26Clubs

An engraving of Dionysus, god of wine, raising a cup, with a leopard asleep at his feet

Three Laurels · Three Wheels	93 and above
Two Laurels · Two Wheels	85 to 92
One Laurel · One Wheel	75 to 84

Laurels for pubs, Wheels for clubs. Wet houses may earn at most two. A house that scores under five for warmth or linger forfeits its mark.

An engraving of Roman gladiators feasting at a long table, raising their cups while one carves the roast

The Rules

Set down for the guidance of members.

The Club's rulings are final, except where they are not.

Agreed by the Committee, over a long lunch.

Inspection reports

Recently ruled upon.

The highest marks on the ledger. Full verdicts on these, and on the other 322, are in the members' papers.

House of the Month

The Pocket

93 · Two Laurels · Wet house

The highest mark on the ledger this year, held at Two Laurels only because a wet house can go no higher. The Committee has asked that it not be crowded out by Sunday week.

The full verdict is in the members’ papers.

Read why

Notice to members

Lost property.

Found at a table by the window, late on Sunday: one cap, tweed; one copy of the members' papers; one hand of cards, abandoned mid-game. The member concerned is asked to collect all three from the bar, and to finish the game.

The Club Secretary

Application

Three questions. One Sunday.

Answer honestly. The Committee can tell. Admitted members receive their papers.

Members' papers

Membership comes with the papers.

Every edition carries the full ledger, the Club's marks and the Rules.

Owning any edition of the guide makes you a member of Roman Sundays. There is no fee beyond the book.

The Club Shop

For the table, the walk and the coat peg.

A small range of Club kit, made in modest numbers.

View the full Club Shop