In 2024, I launched the Clubland Substack. This presents subscribers with a regular newsletter on a wide variety of aspects of private members’ clubs.
Articles are centred around several distinct strands, so the below contains hyperlinks to the main pieces clustered around each theme.
Guides to clubs by region
Bangalore, India | China | Eastern Europe | Edinburgh, UK | Havana, Cuba [video] | India [video lecture] | Islands of the Pacific | Lisbon, Portugal | Madrid, Spain | Paris, France | Porto, Portugal | Romandy, Switzerland | Washington DC, USA
Historical spotlights
14th October 1940: The night the Carlton Club was bombed | The “Aristocratic embrace”? The Labour Party and London clubs | Did Rhodesia’s Salisbury Club prop up the Ian Smith regime? | Harold Macmillan’s first Carlton Lecture (1982) | Petticoat Alley: London’s Forgotten Women’s Clubs 🔒 | Post-Napoleonic clubs | When Westminster took on Clubland’s kitchens | Winston Churchill and His Clubs 🔒
Lost clubs
American Club (1918-1990) | The former buildings of the Carlton Club (1832-1940) | City Carlton Club (1869-1940) | City Liberal Club (1874-1921) | The former clubhouse of the City University Club (1895-2017) | Constitutional Club (1883-1979) | Crockford’s (1823-1846) | Devonshire Club (1874-1976) | Empress Club (1897-1955) | Junior Carlton Club (1864-1977) | Junior Constitutional Club (1887-1941) | Junior United Service Club (1827-1953) | Naval Club (1919-2021) | United Service Club (1815-1975) | Whitehall Club (1866-1920)
Club management
Clubonomics: Could a small club like Blades survive? | Curating a reciprocals list | Implications of the Garrick Club’s legal advice | “Interview with Matthew Rivett, Secretary of the Oriental Club” | Interviewing candidates for membership 🔒 | Overseas membership, and how it evolved | Vetting candidates for club membership | What is the “right” size for a club?
Club art and architecture
The Athenæum’s architecture and furniture - Tim Gosling [video] | Clubs in the work of James Gillray | The Garrick Club’s art collection | White’s in Hogarth’s ‘A Rake’s Progress’
Clubs in literature
The Bellona Club and Lord Peter Wimsey | Biggles and the Royal Aero Club | Blades in the James Bond novels | “Clubmanship” - Stephen Potter | Clubs in ‘The Flashman Papers’ | The Diogenes Club in the Sherlock Holmes stories | The Junior Ganymede Club in P. G. Wodehouse | The Mystery of Doctor Watson’s Club | The Reform Club in ‘Around the World in 80 Days’ | The Sheridan Club in ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’
Clubs in film and television
Top Hat (1935) | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) | The Man Who Never Was (1956) | Around the World in 80 Days (1956 film) | Vertigo (1958) | Alfred Hitchcock Presents - ‘Specialty of the House’ (1959) | Dr. No (1962) | Members Only (1965) | Barry Lyndon (1975) | Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister (1980-8) | Around the World with Willy Fog (1984 cartoon) | Around the World in 80 Days (1989 mini-series) | Around the World in 80 Days (1989 travelogue) | Jeeves & Wooster (1990-3) | Around the World in 80 Days (2021 mini-series)
Essays and one-off features
Donald Trump and Mar-a-Lago | Good Chaps: The Rise and Fall of an Idea in Clubland | “Lodging at my club”: Which London clubs have bedrooms? 🔒 | Everything you wanted to know about the Clubland Substack (but were afraid to ask…)
The Clubland Database
Africa 🔒 | Asia 🔒 | Central America 🔒 | Europe 🔒 | Middle East 🔒 | North America | Oceania 🔒 | South America 🔒
News
London women’s club AllBright enters administration | Groucho Club to reopen | Soho House Group leadership supports sale of chain
Monthly news round-ups
June 2025 🔒| May 2025 🔒| April 2025 🔒 | March 2025 | February 2025 | January 2025 | December 2024 | November 2024 | August 2024
Books
London Clubland bibliography | ‘Behind Closed Doors’ audiobook preview [video] | Christmas 2024 reading list | ‘London Clubland’ launched today | New book forthcoming | Updated paperback edition of ‘Behind Closed Doors’ | Where to find scarce club histories