High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Vegetarian Society is a British registered charity established on 30 September 1847 with the aim of promoting understanding and respect for vegetarian lifestyles. The first recorded meeting of the Vegetarian Society was held at Northwood Villa, a vegetarian hospital in Ramsgate, Kent in 1847. Its first full public meeting was held in Manchester the following year. In 1848, the society published the first issue of its magazine The Vegetarian. In 1853 the Society already had 889 members. In 1897 its membership was about 5,000.