MAN'S LAST REFUGE

Evening Star, Issue 21099, 11 May 1932, Page 1

MAN'S LAST REFUGE

Five-and-thirty years ago the most select clubs in London had a waiting list of considerable lengths It took from one to three year, to become a member. Of recent years, however, clubs had been doing badly, owing to the increased cost of running them, writes G. Cornwallis West in the London ‘ Daily Telegraph.’ Provided a man has the necessary qualifications and his proposer and seconder are not looked askance at by the committee, he has every chance of being elected within a few months. The so-called “ club man,” so familiar a sight to Victorians, has practically become extinct. There were many in those days who boasted of the fact that they rarely, if ever, left London; who' sauntered every morning into their club about 11 o’clock, read the newspapers, went for a short walk, and returned in time for lunch, after which they sat in the window, victims of port and portliness, smoking large cigars and gazing out upon life.

White’s Club is supposed to be the oldest in the world, although 1 believe there is a club in Philadelphia, called the Rabbit, which claims precedence. White’s, which was founded in 1698, was originally a chocolate house run by a man named White. As it was frequented by so many undesirables, some of the aristocratic young bloods of tho day asked the proprietor to give them a private room. This place was known as the Club Room, and subsequently the club absorbed the whole building. After White died, his widow continued to run it, employing ns manager a man called Arthur, who subsequently left and founded Arthur’s Club. In the ’nineties White’s was owned by the late Mr Algy Burke, and was the most exclusive club in Loudon. There were only 400 members, and practically every one knew the other. Nowadays probably tho Turf, though a much later institution, is tho most difficult to get into. It is fortunate in being one of the few clubs to own freehold premises.