13-522: The Arts Club is a London private members' club in Dover Street , Mayfair , founded in 1863 by Charles Dickens , Anthony Trollope , and Lord Leighton among others. It remains a meeting place for men and women involved in the creative arts either professionally or as patrons. In the nineteenth century members and guests included Dickens, Millais , Whistler , Kipling , Monet , Rodin , Degas and Turgenev . As early as 1891, James Whistler , one of
26-471: A membership fee for access and use. Most are owned and controlled by their members even to this day. Some were originally gentlemen's clubs to which members first had to be elected; others are more modern commercial establishments with no class or gender bar, typically offering food, drink, comfortable surroundings, venue hire and business facilities, in return for members paying subscription or membership fees. The first gentlemen's clubs, mostly established in
39-829: The Groucho Club (established in 1985), Soho House (1995) and Home House (1998); similar clubs operate in other cities and countries: for example, the CORE Club was established in New York City in 2005. These typically offer memberships by subscription and are owned and run as commercial concerns. They offer similar facilities such as food, drink, comfortable surroundings, venue hire and in many cases accommodation. Mobile working (using phone and email) had put pressure on traditional London clubs, some of which discouraged use of mobiles and laptops, or discussion of business matters. By contrast, business-oriented private members' clubs combine
52-657: The West End of London from the late 17th century onwards, were highly exclusive, offering aristocratic and wealthy men a refuge from work and family. The eligibility of potential members depended on their class and gender, with women banned from joining any of them. Early clubs also provided an environment for gambling, illegal outside of members-only establishments. Individuals needed to be formally proposed for membership, and candidates were subject to election by committees which scrutinised individuals' character and suitability. Several private members' clubs for women were established in
65-623: The Arts Club's leading members, broke away to found the rival Chelsea Arts Club . The original club premises were at 17 Hanover Square , Mayfair . After thirty years there, the club moved nearby to its current accommodation, an 18th-century townhouse at 40 Dover Street , Mayfair, just north of the Ritz Hotel on Piccadilly , formerly the London home of the family of the Baron Stanley of Alderley . It
78-1284: The UK. However, a number of clubs outside the UK of similar character have reciprocal arrangements, including the Cercle de l'Union interalliée in Paris, The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto , the St. Botolph and Algonquin Clubs in Boston, the Cosmos Club in Washington DC, the Arts Club of Chicago and the Arts Club of Washington DC, and the Century Association , The Coffee House, National Arts Club and Salmagundi Club in New York. 51°30′29.49″N 0°8′32.02″W / 51.5081917°N 0.1422278°W / 51.5081917; -0.1422278 Private members%27 club Private members' clubs are organisations which provide social and other facilities to members who typically pay
91-435: The club led to disputes between members over the best tables those in which according to the historian Anne de Courcy , the "lunchers could be viewed in all their glory from the street". The Prince of Wales , visiting his wife, Princess Alexandra , was once denied entrance by the footman of the club. The prince's satisfaction over this caused him amusement and led him to say that the club was entitled to bear his wife's name as
104-516: The east end of the street on the north side, in London's Mayfair district. The club was founded in 1884, and closed in 1939. The club had 600 members by 1888. Membership of the club was only available to women eligible to attend the Queen's Drawing Rooms. Amy Levy in her 1888 novel, The Romance of a Shop considered the merits of the Alexandra Club against other clubs for women and concluded that
117-762: The late 19th century; among them the Alexandra Club , the Ladies' Institute, the Ladies' Athenaeum and the University Women's Club . Many of the traditional gentlemen's clubs now allow women as members, though a few, including - until May 2024 - the Garrick Club in London's Covent Garden , still refuse women membership. More modern but otherwise similar private members' clubs have since been established. Most of these, however, are for-profit commercial enterprises neither owned nor controlled by members. London examples include
130-459: The phrase "who has been or who would probably be precluded from Her Majesty's Drawing Rooms" to be "full of the sound and fury of exclusiveness and signifying not so much after all". Smoking was forbidden at the club, and members were not permitted to entertain men. Accommodation was available. The entrance fee was 5 guineas , with the annual subscription fee 4 guineas for members from the country, and 5 guineas for those in town. The popularity of
143-493: The style, food and drink of a contemporary private members' club with the business facilities of a serviced office or coworking space. Notable examples of private members' clubs include: This organization-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Alexandra Club The Alexandra Club was a private members club for women in Edwardian London. It was based at 12 Grosvenor Street , at
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#1732855484822156-630: Was badly bombed in the Blitz and extensively rebuilt. In December 2020 the club opened its first international outpost in Dubai in the ICD Brookfield Place building, Ajaz Sheikh was named CEO of the Dubai Arts Club. In 2023, Mr Sheikh was named Group CEO for the Clubs. Current membership includes a number of Royal Academicians, architects, musicians, actors and writers. Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh
169-561: Was the Patron and Sir Peter Blake is the President of the Club. The Chairman of the Club is Arjun C Waney OBE. Current members include Grayson Perry , the photographer Tom Hunter , the actresses Gwyneth Paltrow and Kim Cattrall and also Ronnie Wood . Well known "non-artist" members include Richard Attenborough , Matthew Parris , and Henry Blofeld . As of 2012, the Club has no reciprocal clubs in
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