It wasn't so much an invention as a spontaneous borrowing from other types of religion, though modelled (obviously) on those who were of the more where-two-or-three-are-gathered-together-in-my-name persuasion but who still favoured a modicum of public worship in the name of a (theoretically) open door policy than of those who were moved to architecture.

Whilst there was no One Person who invented them, each Folk Club tends to favour an Autocratic Leadership, benign or otherwise, who can make or break a session depending on their mood.