PALACES OF POWER
THE BIRTH AND EVOLUTION OF LONDON’S CLUBLAND
In the late 19th century there were 400 gentlemen’s clubs in London. Today only 50 remain. Clubs were ‘at their peak as emblems of empire’,
A somewhat sniffy Lewis called Hoare’s book a ‘sober study’, but
Daily Mail reviewer Sebastian Shakespeare clearly found it more enjoyable than that. ‘London’s clubs may be seen by outsiders as impenetrable palaces of power and influence but, as the author reminds us, they had less salubrious origins,’ he wrote. ‘Clubs evolved from 18th-century taverns, coffee-houses and chocolate-houses – which were rowdy, anarchic and sybaritic – quite unlike today’s more sedate establishments on Pall Mall such as the Reform Club and the Travellers Club. This book vividly captures clubland’s brief history in all its transient (and occasionally squalid) glory,’ he wrote.
‘In 1785, in what must be the earliest known precursor to the mile-high club, Lord Derby agreed to pay Lord Cholmondeley 500 guineas (equivalent to £75,000 in today’s money) “whenever his Lordship f***s a woman in a balloon one thousand yards from the Earth”. The outcome of this wager in Brooks’ Betting Book is not recorded, but such high jinks were widespread in Regency clubland.’ explained Roger Lewis in the They were ‘homes-from-home for imperial administrators, senior civil servants, government ministers, adjutants and retired generals. A decline set in after the First World War, however, when a generation of members or potential members was slaughtered. Between the wars clubland went further out of favour as Edward, Prince of Wales, led the fashion for nightclubs, jazz and dancing to gramophone records. Also, as we see in the antics of Evelyn Waugh’s characters, the sexes wanted to mix.’