Deffo. I've wanted to be a member of a gentleman's club for years now. Sadly, don't move in the required circles for someone to recommend me to be a member, which sucks.
And most of them have reciprocal rights. So join a cheap as chips regional club at a reduced rate because you're more than 75miles from the club, never go, and use it to get into a nicer London club for nowt.
I was a member of the East India Club for several years but stopped renewing my membership when it went up to £600 for an overseas member and I wasn't visiting as often. When I was in London twice a year I could almost justify it.
Plus it was full of pretentious young members with more cash than they should have at their age.
The local version of the RAC is about the same price but with a massive cit centre car park, swimming pool and a couple of rounds of golf thrown in. Although I can't really be bothered with golf so it's still not great value.
I got some grief for going to the Savile one night because there are no women members. But I was able to counter that one of the chaps transitioned and was permitted to retain his membership (but not his member).
I'm not a northerner. As I said, I used to travel a lot on business and was introduced. It's nice to have a home away from home. I still keep the membership mainly for the international reciprocals.
I've been to quite a few of the old London clubs - Garrick, Athenaeum, Travellers, Boodle's, Carlton, RAC, Liberal - as well as some of the newer (Groucho, Soho House (Soho, Shoreditch and White City)). The Athenaeum is the nicest. The Garrick is stuffed full of lawyers, judges and arbitrators. I'm not a member of any - maybe when the kids have grown up I'll join one, if they'll have me.
The Travellers is so mediocre. The food is not great, the wine is so-so, the members undistinguished. They have that nice garden but make nothing of it. The whole place has an air of aged neglect.
I love the O&C with its splendid library and possibly the most authentic looking gas fire I've seen at reception. The In & Out is nice too. The Rag is quite modern by comparison but has a nice feel to it.
I'd hate those "upper tier" places like White's and Brooks's and so on. They seem insufferably pompous. Athaneaum too probably.
The only members clubs I've ever been to in London have been the army navy club a few times with Commodore dad...and then Shoreditch house and Soho house etc. oh and also the Groucho a few times.
Army Navy club - as expected basically all retired officers getting pissed and having bangers.
Shoreditch house, Soho house and the Groucho - hot slutty women and spivvy blokes.
I assumed the all male gentleman's clubs were for the people who played soggy biscuit 'to win'
Royal Ocean Racing Club is excellent. Nice quiet bar in a very central spot where you can read the paper quietly. Decent relatively inexpensive food. Reasonable membership fees as it's subsidised heavily by all the overseas members who join so they can take part in the races but never visit the club. Best of all always full of people who like boats so you know you have something in common.
I know a chap who spent years making friends with the right people to get himself into Royal Corinthian on the Isle of Wight and a short while later it merged with RORC and so I got membership without having to do anything. He was not amused.
No. I have only been to two of these London places on business. The RAC, which was great, and the Reform Club which wasn't.
The doorman at the Reform was rudeness personified. Ex-military I guessed, barking orders around. Ignoring him I had a wander. strange rooms with elderly people playing cards or reading books and the main bar which was deserted apart from a couple of elderly gents sipping brandy. Ok for all of them I suppose, but not my thing.
Travellers was for the Spooks, I think the point was that you wouldnt recognise members. Mr M is a member at EIC and it’s good for the grouse and the Christmas carols at St James Palace
Lol. Chambo hates to be told what to do by posh types in that London.
He'd prefer to sit at his throne holding court in the Drummond. Mongerel doggie by his side. Blathering bleary eyed, bibulous and belligerent, but a free man - just like his hero - Mel Gibson.
That's when all the punters in the Drummond know it's time for home...when Chambo has finished flailing his bladder for a spell and bumbled and bimbled back to his pew and roars 'they can take our lives, but they can never take - OUR FREEDOM!'
Then he slumps back and settles down for a little snooze in his chair
Chambo you strike a blow against the silly Berks in London. Do you not?
Chambo they are nothing without you. Chambo no one could ever conceive that you were anything but a genius. Whether or not you spend your time sipping cool pints in a lovely pub is neither here nor there.
Heh. Just recalled I had a breakfast as the Special Forces Club once. Was buying something from a chap who's day job was "doing country analysis" for multinationals. Which I took to mean "figuring out which warlord to pay, and how much".
Chambo - to be clear, you got shirty with the security on the door of a private members club, of which you are not member, because you felt entitled to treat the place as if you were a member?
Do people actually care if others want to join or form clubs? If people want to be dull buggers and lurk in White's or wherever, thank goodness they're not elsewhere and potentially bothering me.
I confess that I am a member of a club and use it for a cheap bedroom when I'm in town. I have also had lunch and dinner with RoFers there!
It's a mutual, ie: owned by the members and hence non-profit making. There's no way I'd pay to stay in any of the commercial hotels near to it.
'oh please leave me alone for a minute. What do I have to do ? Literally throw myself in the sea or climb a cliff just to get away from this incessant nagging?'
Heh. RR like many people I work in an industry that is majority female. At least half my m9s are female. I’m married to a woman. All that I want is some male time. It’s not about being afraid of women or not liking them or anything like that.
Who cares? It’s a free country atm. There are plenty of women’s clubs. I am not sure i am behind the new all women’s professional groups that have sprung up. Bitchy, boring, regressive and unnecessary.
IMO men act differently when women are around. I think it’s important to have some male spaces yes. And female ones.
I personally think that a lot of male psychological issues are caused by or at least contributed to by men not having places to bond/interact by themselves.
No, I wouldn't join but I think it is largely a moot point in any event since they are pretty unlikely to want me!
The primary problem with these places isn't that they don't let in women (per se) and I don't have a problem at all with single gender spaces. The problem is they are designed to be exclusionary of all sorts of 'other' people (whether they put that openly in their rules or not) and that is bad for social mobility and meritocracy generally. To be honest though private members clubs ceased to be a real problem from that perspective a pretty long time ago and so it's not something I can get excited about.
For me being able to go to a club is important to get away from the horrific open plan office and all the tedes that mill around in it. Without it I wouldn’t be able to sustain even 2 days “in the office”
It's a private club so within reason they can decide who they do and don't want to let in. My mother this morning has the first session of the old ladies coffee club set up as the alternative to my dad's old boys lunch club.
The same thing applies to working man’s clubs which also seem to have died a death. Ditto the Freemasons (although they did become corrupt), the WI, whatever.
I think having “exclusive” spaces isn’t a bad thing especially for single genders, sexualities, etc.
Aye but people usually want to socialise with like. Not many company directors would feel comfortable with being in a working man’s club and vice versa.
I guess in the old days some large companies did have social clubs (hospitals certainly did) where perhaps there was more mixing “between grades”?
And I don’t see how exclusive places can’t be tied to privilege of some sort, even if it’s just a particular industry. Wouldn’t you all love to star spot at the Groucho? Do you think it’s exclusive?
I’ve been to a couple and didn’t exactly feel uncomfortable (I went there because people I knew had invited me there so why would I?) but I wouldn’t chose to go to one without those specific people so I guess I didn’t feel entirely comfortable.
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Yes but as I don’t live in London I wouldn’t use it enough.
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Mrs Dux's father belonged. Probably not my sort of club tbh.
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Deffo. I've wanted to be a member of a gentleman's club for years now. Sadly, don't move in the required circles for someone to recommend me to be a member, which sucks.
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Pinkus, it's really, really not hard.
And most of them have reciprocal rights. So join a cheap as chips regional club at a reduced rate because you're more than 75miles from the club, never go, and use it to get into a nicer London club for nowt.
If you love eating pheasant, this is ideal.
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Or grouse.
I was a member of the East India Club for several years but stopped renewing my membership when it went up to £600 for an overseas member and I wasn't visiting as often. When I was in London twice a year I could almost justify it.
Plus it was full of pretentious young members with more cash than they should have at their age.
The local version of the RAC is about the same price but with a massive cit centre car park, swimming pool and a couple of rounds of golf thrown in. Although I can't really be bothered with golf so it's still not great value.
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Lots of points being missed here.
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Are you telling us you're trans and they binned you?
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Heh. V good.
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Did you want people to weigh in on the fact it's male only?
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Not for much longer I suspect and anyway so what. Different spaces for different faces.
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I got some grief for going to the Savile one night because there are no women members. But I was able to counter that one of the chaps transitioned and was permitted to retain his membership (but not his member).
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The Savile is quite nice - it has a snooker table. But only an upright piano. So not perfect. Didn't realise it was only dudes.
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I'm a reciprocal member of the Savile. It's very old-fashioned, but unpretentious and I rather like it.
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RAC has a lovely pool, and the Jubilee Line goes right underneath it.
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What's your home club, Dux?
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I have a small fairly unfashionable London club, and a nice regional one up north, from when I used to travel a lot.
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Dux, the only reciprocal club they list in the South of England is this one:
https://castleclub.net/
Is that yours????
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No.
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Oh sorry X-posted. Hadn't realised you were a northerner.
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Northern Counties Club?
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Must be protected at all costs. There just aren't enough safe spaces for cis white hetero males in London these days. It's cold out there.
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I'm not a northerner. As I said, I used to travel a lot on business and was introduced. It's nice to have a home away from home. I still keep the membership mainly for the international reciprocals.
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Let’s face it in an ideal world one would dine somewhere friendly each night and get a cab home. With or without company, to taste.
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That would be ideal. It would just be nice to sit comfo tably in a bar with a book and not be bothered for a couple of hours, tbh.
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Tabitha and Jemima want to discuss the oral tradition
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Isn't east India the one that some schools join you up automatically for? I am sure that's what happened way back
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My old man was a member of the Athenaeum but I don’t think he used it much.
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I would feel tied down if I joined a club. I have always liked to be a migrant eater and drinker
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Solicitors tugging on about supposedly exclusive London clubs. Nah.
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Not automatically Roger, but it's basically a tick box exercise.
Lots of young members being odious. Rugger, twickers, that sort of thing.
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Someone in my department is a member of the Athenaeum but I don’t think he goes there much. I think he did more when he lived in London.
I guess my London club is the RSM. Hardly exclusive but a decent place to stay right in town usually for £180/night.
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I dunno. It's not like Joe Bloggs can just pay for a medical degree.
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I've been to quite a few of the old London clubs - Garrick, Athenaeum, Travellers, Boodle's, Carlton, RAC, Liberal - as well as some of the newer (Groucho, Soho House (Soho, Shoreditch and White City)). The Athenaeum is the nicest. The Garrick is stuffed full of lawyers, judges and arbitrators. I'm not a member of any - maybe when the kids have grown up I'll join one, if they'll have me.
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oh, and the east india club and savilles. they aren't really in the same league. tbf neither is the travellers
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The Travellers is most definitely in the same league, and certainly above the Carlton ffs!
The Savile, O&C and In & Out possibly the rung below but still very respectable.
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I'd put the National Liberal in that category too.
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oh yes, I've been to the O&C as well.
The Travellers is so mediocre. The food is not great, the wine is so-so, the members undistinguished. They have that nice garden but make nothing of it. The whole place has an air of aged neglect.
The Carlton at least has a spivy buzz about it.
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I love the O&C with its splendid library and possibly the most authentic looking gas fire I've seen at reception. The In & Out is nice too. The Rag is quite modern by comparison but has a nice feel to it.
I'd hate those "upper tier" places like White's and Brooks's and so on. They seem insufferably pompous. Athaneaum too probably.
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I've been to Brooks
very very old school
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I've been to:
East India - decent enough but a bit hooray Henry with fops in red trousers (which I do own).
Oriental - good food but small bar.
RAC - a bit busy/ impersonal.
Farmers - solid all rounder but a bit unexciting.
Athenaeum - probably the most interesting but seems hard to join.
Savile - seems quite fun. I'd like to go again.
O&C - a bit meh.
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The Travellers is a lovely club, really charming. You wouldn't go for the food, of course.
I like the Ath.
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Cryppers - let's have lunch at the Savile some time.
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The only members clubs I've ever been to in London have been the army navy club a few times with Commodore dad...and then Shoreditch house and Soho house etc. oh and also the Groucho a few times.
Army Navy club - as expected basically all retired officers getting pissed and having bangers.
Shoreditch house, Soho house and the Groucho - hot slutty women and spivvy blokes.
I assumed the all male gentleman's clubs were for the people who played soggy biscuit 'to win'
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Pal of mine used to be in the Savile. I didn't think much of it.
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Sounds good, Dux. I'd like that.
I have been to the Travellers. It was ok. Didn't think the members were that interesting.
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Royal Ocean Racing Club is excellent. Nice quiet bar in a very central spot where you can read the paper quietly. Decent relatively inexpensive food. Reasonable membership fees as it's subsidised heavily by all the overseas members who join so they can take part in the races but never visit the club. Best of all always full of people who like boats so you know you have something in common.
I know a chap who spent years making friends with the right people to get himself into Royal Corinthian on the Isle of Wight and a short while later it merged with RORC and so I got membership without having to do anything. He was not amused.
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Bloody good show Sails
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Also key point is no daft dress code and ladies are encouraged.
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oh, I've been to the Royal Ocean Racing Club. It is nice. virtually empty though (presumably they were all at sea)
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It shuts at the weekend on the assumption we are all at sea...
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No. I have only been to two of these London places on business. The RAC, which was great, and the Reform Club which wasn't.
The doorman at the Reform was rudeness personified. Ex-military I guessed, barking orders around. Ignoring him I had a wander. strange rooms with elderly people playing cards or reading books and the main bar which was deserted apart from a couple of elderly gents sipping brandy. Ok for all of them I suppose, but not my thing.
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Not like the Drummond eh, Chambo?
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Nope Dux. For one thing the food is better at the Drummond. And the beer.
I should add for those that don't know, The Drummond is a very good pub, not a gentlemans club.
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Travellers was for the Spooks, I think the point was that you wouldnt recognise members. Mr M is a member at EIC and it’s good for the grouse and the Christmas carols at St James Palace
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Lol. Chambo hates to be told what to do by posh types in that London.
He'd prefer to sit at his throne holding court in the Drummond. Mongerel doggie by his side. Blathering bleary eyed, bibulous and belligerent, but a free man - just like his hero - Mel Gibson.
That's when all the punters in the Drummond know it's time for home...when Chambo has finished flailing his bladder for a spell and bumbled and bimbled back to his pew and roars 'they can take our lives, but they can never take - OUR FREEDOM!'
Then he slumps back and settles down for a little snooze in his chair
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You've got the wrong man there buckaroo.
Are you just trying to be an unplesant dick, whoever you are or used to be?
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No chambo. I'm your biggest fan.
Chambo you strike a blow against the silly Berks in London. Do you not?
Chambo they are nothing without you. Chambo no one could ever conceive that you were anything but a genius. Whether or not you spend your time sipping cool pints in a lovely pub is neither here nor there.
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Heh. Just recalled I had a breakfast as the Special Forces Club once. Was buying something from a chap who's day job was "doing country analysis" for multinationals. Which I took to mean "figuring out which warlord to pay, and how much".
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Chambo - to be clear, you got shirty with the security on the door of a private members club, of which you are not member, because you felt entitled to treat the place as if you were a member?
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Lol @minkie suggesting that spies go to her husband's club.
And that's well known.
Get an STD check. Who knows what these 'spies' have been doing.
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Simon Case and Richard Moore have apparently resigned
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First casualties. They're not sorry, they're sorry they were caught.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/mar/20/mi6-chief-resigns-garri…
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https://x.com/thesimonevans/status/1771935471620276601?s=46&t=UXS_04ZGrrlCO4pbPQWraQ
Fabulous
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Do people actually care if others want to join or form clubs?
If people want to be dull buggers and lurk in White's or wherever, thank goodness they're not elsewhere and potentially bothering me.
I confess that I am a member of a club and use it for a cheap bedroom when I'm in town. I have also had lunch and dinner with RoFers there!
It's a mutual, ie: owned by the members and hence non-profit making. There's no way I'd pay to stay in any of the commercial hotels near to it.
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I don’t see what the issue is. Some people don’t want to spend all their waking hours with women. What’s wrong with that?
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'som people don't want to spend all their waking hours with women'.
When you put it like that crypto - I'm tempted.
I thought that was what the sea and the crags were for.
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Will somebody think of the men who are scared of women? They need a safe space.
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It's not being scared of women.
Just like
'oh please leave me alone for a minute. What do I have to do ? Literally throw myself in the sea or climb a cliff just to get away from this incessant nagging?'
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Frit of femmes. Just own it.
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Heh. RR like many people I work in an industry that is majority female. At least half my m9s are female. I’m married to a woman. All that I want is some male time. It’s not about being afraid of women or not liking them or anything like that.
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Plot twist.
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Heh.
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Frit of femmes. I'm unmoved by the excuses.
Education : boys school
Mid career : Garrick
It's not surprising that these extensions of the fagging system have endured.
The worst part is losers like gaga who would love to be invited to Garrick but are not accepted, despite fulfilling the women hating criteria.
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I don't think it's about hating women Meht.
You never had a girlfriend who went crazy for some random shit? You left a teaspoon somewhere?
I could get behind this blokes thing
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There are nutty women, but gaga hates them all, even the great ones.
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Who cares? It’s a free country atm. There are plenty of women’s clubs. I am not sure i am behind the new all women’s professional groups that have sprung up. Bitchy, boring, regressive and unnecessary.
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IMO men act differently when women are around. I think it’s important to have some male spaces yes. And female ones.
I personally think that a lot of male psychological issues are caused by or at least contributed to by men not having places to bond/interact by themselves.
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No - because it sounds boring as hell. Couldn’t care less about the admissions policy.
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Oh there’s more. Awks.
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2024/apr/15/high-court-judge-jonath…
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Royal Ocean Racing
the bunk rooms are great for a cheap night in London if you like that sort of thing
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re the Garrick - no would not join
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I would not join the Garrick
But I think the idea of spaces for individual groups is healthy provided they aren't just full of people having on other individual groups
So I have nothing against women only gyms, state school educated networks, religious meeting groups, lgbtq+ groups etc etc
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Also I don't think Garrick would let a scally like me join
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No, I wouldn't join but I think it is largely a moot point in any event since they are pretty unlikely to want me!
The primary problem with these places isn't that they don't let in women (per se) and I don't have a problem at all with single gender spaces. The problem is they are designed to be exclusionary of all sorts of 'other' people (whether they put that openly in their rules or not) and that is bad for social mobility and meritocracy generally. To be honest though private members clubs ceased to be a real problem from that perspective a pretty long time ago and so it's not something I can get excited about.
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For me being able to go to a club is important to get away from the horrific open plan office and all the tedes that mill around in it. Without it I wouldn’t be able to sustain even 2 days “in the office”
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It's a private club so within reason they can decide who they do and don't want to let in. My mother this morning has the first session of the old ladies coffee club set up as the alternative to my dad's old boys lunch club.
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What Davis said really.
The same thing applies to working man’s clubs which also seem to have died a death. Ditto the Freemasons (although they did become corrupt), the WI, whatever.
I think having “exclusive” spaces isn’t a bad thing especially for single genders, sexualities, etc.
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Tbf, exclusive places are ok, but when they are deeply tied to privilege and opportunities, then they're really a bad thing.
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Aye but people usually want to socialise with like. Not many company directors would feel comfortable with being in a working man’s club and vice versa.
I guess in the old days some large companies did have social clubs (hospitals certainly did) where perhaps there was more mixing “between grades”?
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Pretty sure anyone with a white collar job would feel uncomfortable in a WMC.
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And I don’t see how exclusive places can’t be tied to privilege of some sort, even if it’s just a particular industry. Wouldn’t you all love to star spot at the Groucho? Do you think it’s exclusive?
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I’ve been to a couple and didn’t exactly feel uncomfortable (I went there because people I knew had invited me there so why would I?) but I wouldn’t chose to go to one without those specific people so I guess I didn’t feel entirely comfortable.
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