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 | Edinburgh, UK | Havana, Cuba [video] | India [video] | Islands of the Pacific | Lisbon, Portugal | Paris, France | Porto, Portugal | Romandy, Switzerland | Washington DC, USA
Lost clubs
American Club (1918-1990) | The former buildings of the Carlton Club (1832-1940) | The former clubhouse of the City University Club (1895-2017) | City Carlton Club (1869-1940) | City Liberal Club (1874-1921) | Crockford’s (1823-1846) | Devonshire Club (1874-1976) | Junior Carlton Club (1864-1977) | 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” | Vetting candidates for club membership | What is the “right” size for a club?
Clubs in literature
The Bellona Club and Lord Peter Wimsey | Blades in the James Bond novels | The Diogenes Club in the Sherlock Holmes stories | The Mystery of Doctor Watson’s Club | The Sheridan Club in ‘Rumpole of the Bailey’
Clubs in film and television
The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943) | The Man Who Never Was (1956) | Vertigo (1958) | Alfred Hitchcock Presents - ‘Specialty of the House’ (1959) | Barry Lyndon (1975) | Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister (1980-8) | Jeeves & Wooster (1990-3)
Essays and one-off features
Did Rhodesia’s Salisbury Club prop up the Ian Smith regime? | Donald Trump and Mar-a-Lago | Good Chaps: The Rise and Fall of an Idea in Clubland | Harold Macmillan’s first Carlton Lecture (1982) | “Lodging at my club”: Which London clubs have bedrooms?🔒| Petticoat Alley: London’s Forgotten Women’s Clubs🔒| Post-Napoleonic clubs | Winston Churchill and His Clubs 🔒| 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
News round-ups
February 2025 | January 2025 | December 2024 | November 2024 | August 2024
Books
London Clubland bibliography | ‘Behind Closed Doors’ audiobook preview [video] | Christmas 2024 reading list | New book forthcoming | Updated paperback edition of ‘Behind Closed Doors’ | Where to find scarce club histories