In 2024, I launched the Clubland Substack. This presents subscribers with a regular newsletter on a wide variety of aspects of private members’ clubs.
Index
Articles are centred around several distinct strands, so the below contains links to the main pieces, sorted by theme.
Guides to clubs by region
Bangalore, India | Buenos Aires, Argentina | China | Colombo, Sri Lanka | Eastern Europe | Edinburgh, UK | Havana, Cuba 🎞️| India [lecture] 🎞️ | Islands of the Pacific | Lisbon, Portugal | Madrid, Spain | Paris, France | Porto, Portugal | Romandy, Switzerland | Tokyo, Japan | Vienna, Austria | 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? | From the archives: Inside Annabel’s in 1980 🎞️ | 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 Athenæum (1864-1931) | Junior Carlton Club (1864-1977) | Junior Constitutional Club (1887-1941) | Junior United Service Club (1827-1953) | Naval Club (1919-2021) | Pioneer Club (1892-1939) | United Service Club (1815-1975) | United University Club (1821-1971) | Whitehall Club (1866-1920)
Club management
Club legal textbooks | Clubonomics: Could a small club like Blades survive? | Curating a reciprocals list | The hotel-club: Victorian comeback, or the blight of Clubland? | How membership elections work | 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 🎞️ | Clubs in the work of James Gillray | The Garrick Club’s art collection | Reynolds’ group portraits for the Society of Dilettanti | Sir Reginald Blomfield - portrait of a club architect | 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, television and radio
Top Hat (1935) 🎞️ | The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) 🎞️ | The Man Who Never Was (1956) 🎞️ | Around the World in 80 Days (1956) | Vertigo (1958) | Alfred Hitchcock Presents - ‘Specialty of the House’ (1959) | Dr. No (1962) | Goldfinger (1964) | Members Only (1965) 🎞️ | Round the Horne (1965-8) | Casino Royale (1967) | Barry Lyndon (1975) | The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) | Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister (1980-8) | Around the World with Willy Fog (1984) | 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)
Essays and one-off features
Clubbability: What does it mean? | 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 🔒
Visual guides
How have London’s historic clubs adapted to the smoking ban? | London club libraries today
News
London women’s club AllBright enters administration | Groucho Club to reopen | The sale of Soho House | Soho House Group leadership supports sale of chain
News round-ups
Late August 2025 🔒 | Early August 2025 🔒 | Late July 2025 🔒 | Early July 2025 🔒 | Late June 2025 🔒 | Early 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 🎞️ | Christmas 2024 reading list | ‘London Clubland’ launched today | New book forthcoming | Updated paperback edition of ‘Behind Closed Doors’ | Where to find scarce club histories
ClubCast: The Clubland Podcast
1: European clubs after Napoleon 🔊 | 2: Blades in Fleming’s James Bond novels 🔊 | 3: 14th October 1940: The night the Carlton Club was bombed 🔊 | 4: The Labour Party & Clubs 🔊 |