The Bow Group is an independent group of younger Conservatives, and the oldest Conservative think tank in Britain independent of Party organisation. Its membership includes Conservative MPs, but is not restricted to them. Founded in 1951 by several Oxford graduates, it takes its name from the site of its first meetings: the Bow and Bromley Constitutional Club in the East End of London. The Bow Group was intended to act as a Conservative equivalent to the Fabian Society: it would be a national research body, whose members could publish reports and discussion papers on any number of subjects, without having formal ties to a political party. Its publications have been an influential forum for Conservative thinking, but it does not operate as a pressure group in pursuit of particular policy objectives. The group's journal, Crossbow, is published three times a year.