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 | Chile | China | Colombo, Sri Lanka | Eastern Europe | Edinburgh, UK | Havana, Cuba 🎞️| India [lecture] 🎞️ | Islands of the Pacific | Lisbon, Portugal | Madrid, Spain | Nairobi, Kenya | New York, USA - Part 1: Upper East Side Manhattan; Part 2: Midtown Manhattan; Part 3: Downtown and Lower Manhattan | Paris, France | Porto, Portugal | Romandy, Switzerland | Tokyo, Japan | Vancouver, Canada | Vienna, Austria | Washington DC, USA
Historical spotlights
14th October 1940: The night the Carlton Club was bombed | The 1990 IRA bombing of the Carlton Club | 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) 🎞️ | Margaret Thatcher’s second Carlton Lecture (1984) 🎞️ | 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) | The first Ladies’ Carlton Club (1910) | Naval Club (1919-2021) | New University Club (1864-1938) | Pioneer Club (1892-1939) | Union Club (1799-1964) | United Service Club (1815-1975) | United University Club (1821-1971) | Whitehall Club (1866-1920)
Club management
Club Christmas staff fund appeals | Club legal textbooks | Clubonomics: Could a small club like Blades survive? | Clubs and charity | Curating a reciprocals list | The Do’s and Don’t’s of using reciprocal clubs | The “food & beverage trap” in clubs? | The hotel-club: Victorian comeback, or a blight on 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 | George Birch’s 1890s London Clubland photographs | The Illustrated London News’ “In Clubland” pictorials | Reynolds’ group portraits for the Society of Dilettanti | Sir Reginald Blomfield - portrait of a club architect | Samuel Bird’s painting of Gladstone at the National Liberal Club - a missing picture | White’s in Hogarth’s ‘A Rake’s Progress’
Clubs in literature
‘Anthony Powell at the Travellers’, by Hugh Massingberd | The Bellona Club and Lord Peter Wimsey | Biggles and the Royal Aero Club | Blades in the James Bond novels | Clubman, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Part 1: George Smiley’s clubs | Clubman, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Part 2: Clubs in the world of George Smiley | “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) 🎞️ | Pathé newsreels of the Empress Club (1950-2) 🎞️ | The Man Who Never Was (1956) 🎞️ | Around the World in 80 Days (1956) | Sea Wife (1957) | Vertigo (1958) | Alfred Hitchcock Presents - ‘Specialty of the House’ (1959) | That Touch of Mink (1962) | Dr. No (1962) | Goldfinger (1964) | Members Only (1965) 🎞️ | How to Murder Your Wife (1965) | Round the Horne (1965-8) | Casino Royale (1967) | Doctor Who - ‘Terror of the Autons’ (1971) | Barry Lyndon (1975) | Brannigan (1975) | The Spy Who Loved Me (1977) | Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister (1980-8) | Around the World with Willy Fog (1984) | Unnatural Causes - ‘Ladies’ Night’ (1986) | Around the World in 80 Days (1989 mini-series) | Around the World in 80 Days (1989 travelogue) | Jeeves & Wooster (1990-3) | Die Another Day (2002) - Part 1; Part 2 | Around the World in 80 Days (2021)
Essays and one-off features
Clubbability: What does it mean? | Clubs that are designed for their investors, rather than their members | 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 billiard rooms | 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 January 2026🔒| Early January 2026🔒| Late December 2025🔒| Early December 2025🔒| Late November 2025🔒| Early November 2025🔒| Late October 2025🔒| Early October 2025🔒| Late September 2025🔒| Early September 2025 🔒 | 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 | Christmas reading 2025: Clubland fiction | ‘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 🔊 | 5: Interiors of London clubs, with Andrew Jones 🔊 | 6: Did Rhodesia’s Salisbury Club prop up the Ian Smith regime? 🔊 | 7: Ben Schott on Clubland language 🔊