Private members' clubs: what's the point?

Another of London's private members' clubs is in the spotlight as scrutiny on such exclusive establishments intensifies. 

Men-only club Buck's in Mayfair "is facing a revolt" among its members after "disgraced" hedge fund manager Crispin Odey was put forward to join, said the Financial Times. Odey has strenuously denied allegations against him of sexual assault and harassment, but a Buck's member told the paper that "he's just not someone we want to be associated with". 

The row follows an investigation last month by The Guardian into the all-male members list of the Garrick Club, with two senior government officials resigning from the club after they were named. 

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'Out of date and wrong'

The controversies have renewed questions about what purpose members' clubs serve in the 21st century. 

As workplaces and leisure facilities become more inclusive, "the most privileged desperately seek sanctuary in elite spaces, far away from madding crowds", said Yasmin Alibhai-Brown on the i news site. "Nepotism and old school ties, though still useful, no longer work as smoothly as they once did", but for members, "exclusive clubs are the counterforce to too much undesirable democratisation".

Places where those of similar interests "can meet and enjoy each other's company are valuable", said Garrick Club member Simon Jenkins in The Guardian. But the "exclusion of women from havens of civilised conversation and debate" is "out of date and wrong".

The current fracas about all-male members' clubs "is really an intra-elite struggle", wrote Josiah Gogerty for UnHerd. And the real question is why anyone would want to join such establishments. "The men in the Garrick, and the women who want to get in, do not properly understand the country they run."

'Comfortable haven in a wicked city'

Churches, working men's clubs and sports clubs all perform the same social function as private members' clubs, Robin Dunbar, professor of evolutionary psychology at Oxford, told the FT. All these groupings are where you “learnt to be a member of a community", he said. "We are very good at recognising those cues. It is the old school tie effect on a general scale."

But not all such alternatives to members' clubs offer a "comfortable haven in a wicked city, a safe space from the horrors of the outside world", said Nigel Jones in The Spectator. My gentleman's club, the Savile, is "a place where I can make new friends from all walks of life, and entertain old ones (including female ones)", as well as "educate myself" at talks and lectures, enjoy films, concerts and fine dining, and "rest my weary head at the end of the day: and all for under a grand a year".

Perhaps the biggest draw, said Kara Kennedy in The New Statesman, is that private members’ clubs "serve the same purpose as a shiny car on finance or the unread copy of 'War and Peace' on a bookshelf". Belonging to such establishments "makes you feel better about yourself and is – probably – cheaper and easier than therapy".