The society first met at James Hutton's shop, 'The Bible and Sun,' Wild Street, west of Temple Bar.
The Royal Courts of Justice or Law Courts stand adjacent to the Inns of Court, facing the Strand at the point where a memorial marks the site of Old Temple Bar (1672), at the entrance to the City, removed in 1878 and later re-erected at Theobald's Park, near Cheshunt, Hertfordshire.
Shilling monthlies began with Macmillan (1859), the Cornhill (1860), first edited by Thackeray, and Temple Bar (1860).
The name was derived from that of Christopher Cat, the keeper of the piehouse in which the club met in Shire Lane, near Temple Bar.
The Temple Bar pub, while unashamedly promoting tourist kitsch, has the best beer garden in the city and excellent irish musicians.
