As with brothels and MI5 safe houses, people walk past London members’ clubs every day without realising. Take Soho’s the Academy, an exercise in boho understatement, or the Royal Thames Yacht Club, which could be any of Knightsbridge’s faceless hotels. Islington’s the Dally occupies a converted pub on Upper Street, while Buck’s, the model for Bertie Wooster’s beloved Drones, is secreted inside an anonymous Mayfair town house. The London Club takes us behind the front doors of 46 of these institutions, from the grand (RAC, Boodle’s, the Reform) and the quirky (the Beefsteak, the Union) to more recent arrivals, such as the Groucho or 67 Pall Mall.
Beyond frontages both vivacious and inscrutable lie a plethora of amazing and unexpected spaces, such as the 1970s pub beneath the Royal Air Force Club on Piccadilly or the bar in the dome of House of Koko, complete with Conrad Shawcross sculpture. The RAC is a miniature high street, with barber, post office, Turkish bath, shooting range and bowling alley, while the Travellers caters to the spiritual with a chapel. Laura Hodgson provides sumptuous photographs of lavish staircases such as Bernard Engle’s splendid swirl at the National Liberal Club, gorgeous libraries – none finer than the Athenaeum’s book-lined paradise – and a parade of decorative ceilings, elegant balustrades and well-dressed dining rooms. She also zeroes in on the details highlighted by Andrew Jones’s playful text, whether it be propellor-shaped light switches at the Royal Air Force Club, wallpaper depicting flatulent Victorians at the Academy or the ram’s-head snuffbox on a mantelpiece at the Oriental.
Most clubs have colourful legends. Jones brings us potted highlights while also describing what the buildings actually look like, how they are used and how the space has evolved. There’s work by international designers, artists and architects, from Robert Adam to Russell Sage, but the fun really comes from the conversation between the original design, often studied and tasteful, and the more cavalier fashion in which members have populated their sanctuaries. Animals are popular: there’s Cecil, the East India’s stuffed hippo, and Beelzebub, an emphatically alive gecko at the gleefully eccentric London Sketch Club. Each establishment has at least one outstanding feature, whether it’s the thriving plane tree in the garden of the Arts Club, Faraday’s wheelchair at the Athenaeum or the world-class collection of flies at, where else, the Flyfishers’ Club.
The book takes us to all corners of British society, from the grandeur of the Athenaeum to the studied decadence of Blacks; the confident charm of Chelsea Arts Club to Hackney’s Mildmay, a working-man’s club complete with lovingly maintained 1960s and 70s interiors. The wall decorated with 246 public-school crests indicates the biographical background expected from members at the East India, while the Academy appeals to a different clientele with a code that accepts that ‘members who have the misfortune to be sent to prison will not be expected to pay subscriptions while inside’. Home House’s treasures include a loo seat once warmed by former resident Anthony Blunt, surveyor of the Queen’s pictures, Soviet spy and, with membership at Travellers and the Athenaeum, a consummate patron of the London club.
Glimpse behind the velvet rope into forty-six of London’s fabled private members clubs. Featuring newly commissioned photography by Laura Hodgson and words from Andrew Jones, The London Club whisks readers through old-school gentlemen’s clubs, buzzing literary drinking dens, and hideouts for idiosyncratic hobbyists.
A version of this appeared in the April 2026 issue of ‘The World of Interiors’. Learn about our subscription offers
