Membership only clubs are not dead, they’re just being reinvented. HELEN GRANGE took a turn past the new MESH Club in Rosebank

WHEN that iconic oasis of Victorian grandeur, the Rand Club, shut its doors last October, you might’ve thought that it spelt the end of the era of “gentlemen’s clubs”, which are out of place in today’s world.

The Rand Club was Joburg’s best-known sanctuary for men – and later, women (who were only admitted in 1993) – to talk freely for hours about whatever they liked for an hour or three, over a single malt, in the company of like-minded friends and business associates.

The club might be gone, but the desire among urban high-flyers to huddle in a place they call their own – where membership buys not only creature comforts and good food and tipple, but the freedom to be yourself with a tacit understanding that what you say or do stays within its walls – will never die.

Aspirant millennials need this privilege as much as their forebears, and are willing to pay for it.

Enter the MESH Club, on the second floor of the celebrated new R50 million Trumpet on Keyes, in the new Keyes Art Mile precinct in Rosebank. MESH is a memberbased place for people who’ve been screened and who fit into this

The beautifully designed MESH Club, situated on the second floor of the Trumpet building in Rosebank, promises to create “common ground for uncommon people”, and a space where young movers and shakers can connect.