#MENONLY THE HISTORY OF BOYS’ CLUBS

The Bullingdon Club

Reportedly founded in 1780, Oxford University’s private, all-male dining club became shorthand for a certain kind of Tory politician over the past decade, chiefly thanks to one 1987 team photograph showing Boris Johnson and David Cameron. Past members maintain it’s all good, clean fun, but accounts of “trashing” restaurants and the like suggests otherwise.

Thursday Club

Now famous thanks to its depiction in The

Crown, the Duke of Edinburgh’s bawdy old Fifties London dining society was “strictly all-male”, according to one former member, Miles Kington. John Betjeman, David Niven, Kim Philby and even the Kray brothers are said to have attended meetings, where the only women were pretty young waitresses.

The Windmill Theatre

Having introduced nude women to London audiences in the Thirties, the theatre famously “never closed” – even during the Blitz’s hairiest moments, and later became a comedy venue and table dancing club. It lost its licence two weeks ago when it was found to have broken the “no touching” rule.

The Playboy Club

With food and drinks served by scantilyclad “Bunnies”, Hugh Hefner’s chain of Playboy Clubs – which began in Chicago in 1960 – created a safe space for men to live in Hefner’s Playboy fantasy land.

Spearmint Rhino

Founded in 1989 and led by a venue on Tottenham Court Road, the clubs took over the British scene in 2000.

Stringfellows

If anybody could claim to be the pioneer of late-night enclaves in the 20th century, it’s Peter Stringfellow. His club opened in Covent Garden in 1980, and still offers “Beautiful girls, show stags, private booths and good food”.