From Piccadilly Circus, London to Catfish Row, Cape Town
On Saturday 14th July a select group of EFOGers assembled beneath Eros, to explore the secret world of “Gentlemen’s Clubs” and their environs. We found that the St. James area, after more than 300 years of building and re-building, is still undergoing change but retains lots of hidden passages, alleyways, courts and mews.
Most of these clubs maintain their anonymity, not by hiding in secret alleyways, but by existing in grand buildings which fit seamlessly into London’s varied architecture yet remain nameless. This makes it easy to pass them by unnoticed unless you are “in the know”.
Pausing - and posing - with Beau Brummell in Jermyn StreetMost began in the first half of the 19th century, but some much earlier. White’s, “the father of all clubs”, was founded in 1693. It moved to Jermyn Street in 1753. Its membership list still reads like Burke’s Peerage.
The clubs were places where ‘gentlemen’ could meet, eat, drink and gamble with “their own sort”. They initially served the aristocracy but developed to include clubs for men of different political persuasions. Charles James Fox claimed that a life of all night eating, drinking and gambling in Brook’s Club (founded in 1764) helped him to make his brilliant speeches in parliament in the 1770s.
The Carlton Club and The Reform Club represented those who were, respectively, either anti or pro the 1832 Reform Act which, when passed, helped reduce aristocratic influence in Parliament and thus increased democracy.
The clubs themselves were usually created by the servants of the men who founded them, or tradesmen who served them. White’s developed from a Chocolate House; William Pratt (Pratt’s Club) was the steward of the Duke of Beaufort; Edward Boodle (Boodle’s Club) was the son of a Shropshire innkeeper.
The Athenium, Waterloo PlaceMy favourite, and I think the grandest, The Atheneum in Waterloo Place, was founded by author and civil servant John William Croker, in 1824. It still has a reputation for elegance and as a meeting place for intellectuals. Anthony Trollope was fond of working there.
The East India Club, founded in 1849, was formed for ‘servants and officers’ of the East India Company. It has survived into the 21st century by amalgamating with other clubs: the Devonshire, Sports and Public Schools Club. Like others it also now serves as a prestigious meeting centre. Now, of course, membership is open to women as well as men.
Pall Mall hosts a number of clubs such as The United Oxford and Cambridge University Club, founded in 1830 and The RAC, formed in 1897, “for the protection, encouragement and development of “automobilism”. It has its own swimming pool and rifle range and a reputation as the most ‘open’ club.
When The Travellers Club was founded in 1819, you needed to have travelled at least 500 miles from London to be a member, now you need to have travelled abroad, and preferably have spent some time living abroad. 
There were times on the walk when it was a trifle damp...The shops and services in the area still reflect the status of the clientele, from Berry Brother’s Wine Shop with its vast (and still growing) underground cellars, to Lock’s The Hatters and Lobb’s the Boot and Shoe Makers. It was definitely only a window shopping area for most of us. Do fellas of a certain class still wear night shirts I wonder – or at £90 each are they simply used as an expensive giggle?
Our walk took us to some other places: St James’ Church (with a quick look at its market); Blue Ball Yard which retains picturesque mews cottages (built as coach houses in 1741); Spencer House and Bridgewater House, backing on to Green Park; Selwyn House (where Maz once worked – but no plaque yet), St James’ Palace and Clarence House.
We ended up in Trafalgar Square, with most of us having something to eat in St Martin’s Crypt before going on to see a brilliant performance of Porgy and Bess at The London Coliseum. The show was performed by Cape Town Opera who had transferred Catfish Row to Cape Town.
The show was fantastic and the music still playing in some of our heads several days later ……. The weather was relatively kind if a trifle damp in parts ….. Thanks to all for making it such a nice day!
Pam, July 2012