27-527: The Carlton Club is a private members' club in the St James's area of London , England. It was the original home of the Conservative Party before the creation of Conservative Central Office . Membership of the club is by nomination and election only. The club was founded in 1832, by Tory peers , MPs and gentlemen , as a place to coordinate party activity after the party's defeat over
54-888: A political career. Then Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith refused Carlton Club membership when it was offered to him in 2001 because women, at that time, were unable to become full members. Private members%27 club Private members' clubs are organisations which provide social and other facilities to members who typically pay 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
81-549: Is London's oldest club and therefore the oldest private members' club in the world. It moved to its current premises on St James's Street in 1778. White's is the oldest gentlemen's club in London, founded in 1693, and is considered by many to be the most exclusive private club in London. Notable current members include Charles III and the Prince of Wales . Former British prime minister David Cameron , whose father Ian Cameron
108-682: The First Reform Act . The 1st Duke of Wellington was a founding member; he opposed the 1832 Reform Act and its extension of the right to vote. The club played a major role in the transformation of the Tory party into its modern form as the Conservative Party . It lost its role as a central party office with the widening of the franchise after the Reform Act 1867 , but it remained the principal venue for key political discussions between Conservative ministers, MPs and party managers. The club
135-847: 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
162-545: The Tory party, while the Whigs' club Brooks's was just down the road. A few apolitical and affable gentlemen managed to belong to both. The new architecture featured a bow window on the ground floor. In the later 18th century, the table directly in front of it became a seat of distinction, the throne of the most socially influential men in the club. This belonged to the arbiter elegantiarum , Beau Brummell , until he removed to
189-662: 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
216-616: The Continent in 1816, when William Arden, 2nd Baron Alvanley , took the place of honour. While there, he is supposed to have once bet £3,000 on which of two raindrops would reach the bottom of a pane in the bow window. Later, the spot was reserved for the use of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington , until his death in 1852. Alvanley's was not the most eccentric bet in White's famous betting book. Some of those entries were on sports, but more often on political developments, especially during
243-505: The back of the club were part of the fabric of the original White's Club building. The Junior Carlton Club , which was entirely separate from the Carlton itself, was established in 1864 and occupied a large purpose-built clubhouse, completed in 1869, at 30 Pall Mall, almost opposite the Carlton. This was sold early in the 1960s and part of the proceeds used to buy the site of the former Carlton Club building at 94 Pall Mall. The erection of
270-524: The building; they had been dining together prior to the former's departure for active service in North Africa. The Chief Whip , David Margesson , who was living at the club since his recent divorce, was left homeless and had to sleep for a time on a makeshift bed in the underground Cabinet Annexe . No one was killed in the explosion, but the building was destroyed. The Carlton immediately moved to its current premises at 69 St James's Street , formerly
297-628: The chaotic years of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars . A good many were social bets, such as whether a friend would marry this year, or to whom. The club continues to maintain its tradition as a club for gentlemen only, although one of its best known chefs from the early 1900s was Rosa Lewis , a model for the central character in the BBC television series The Duchess of Duke Street . There were two American members in
SECTION 10
#1732773371634324-434: The club was published by historian Lord Lexden to mark its 175th anniversary in 2007. As of 2022 the club had around 1500 members and membership cost upwards of £1700 per year. The Prime Minister Arthur Balfour was a reluctant member, complaining about the club in the early 1900s. The Carlton is a beastly club... but it must be suffered like long hours and constituents as a necessary though disagreeable accompaniment of
351-463: The early 18th century, it was notorious as a gambling house; those who frequented it were known as "the gamesters of White's". The club gained a reputation for both its exclusivity and the often raffish behaviour of its members. Jonathan Swift referred to White's as the "bane of half the English nobility." In 1778 it moved to 37–38 St James's Street . From 1783 it was the unofficial headquarters of
378-629: The fact Lloyd George was a 'dynamic force' was a danger to the stability of the Conservative party. Austen Chamberlain resigned as leader and Bonar Law formed a purely Conservative government. The club suffered a direct hit during the Blitz on 14 October 1940. Observers, including the diarist Harold Nicolson , noted Quintin Hogg (then a young Conservative MP, later the 2nd Viscount Hailsham) carrying his elderly, disabled father ( Lord Hailsham ) from
405-571: The façade of the third building proved unsuitable in the London atmosphere and had to be completely replaced in 1923–24. The club is most famous for the Carlton Club meeting of 19 October 1922, in which backbench Conservative MPs decided to withdraw from the David Lloyd George –led coalition government . MPs voted in favour of discontinuing the coalition, after speeches from Bonar Law and Stanley Baldwin , with Baldwin saying that
432-568: The following year at age 83 from the injuries he had sustained. It was at the Carlton that Chris Pincher , the deputy chief whip, was alleged to have committed sexual assault on two men on 29 June 2022. The revelations following this scandal led to the government crisis and the resignation of the Prime Minister, Boris Johnson . The standards committee found Pincher's conduct amounted to an abuse of power and recommended he be suspended for eight weeks. Pincher initially intended to appeal
459-504: The former Junior Carlton Club (see below). The current clubhouse has not retained any of the furnishings belonging to the building when it was Arthur's club, apart from the war memorial plaque in the entrance. There is a marble Arthur's club First World War Memorial to be found on the wall by the stairs in the main vestibule of St James's Church Piccadilly (designed by Wren). The walls of the Disraeli and Macmillan rooms and their windows at
486-458: The interwar period, one of whom was a general in the U.S. Army. Postwar American members included diplomat Edward Streator . King Charles III held his stag night at the club before his wedding to Diana Spencer in 1981. His elder son, Prince William , was entered as a member of the club shortly after his birth. The clubhouse is located at 37–38 St James's Street in the City of Westminster and
513-787: 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
540-405: The location of Arthur's club – one of the premier gentlemen's clubs , which had closed the same year after 150 years of operations. The current Georgian clubhouse is architecturally important ( Grade II* listed ) and includes two elegant dining rooms, together with a collection of political portraits and paintings dating back to the 18th century, imported from the ruins of the old clubhouse and
567-498: The new clubhouse on the site of 30 Pall Mall in a modern 1960s prototype 'club of the future' led to mass resignations from that club. In December 1977 it formally merged with the Carlton Club, with negotiations conducted by Harold Macmillan . At 8:39 p.m. on 25 June 1990, the Carlton Club was bombed by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA), injuring more than 20 people. Lord Kaberry died
SECTION 20
#1732773371634594-486: 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 . White%27s Club White's is a gentlemen's club in St James's , London . Founded in 1693 as a hot chocolate shop in Mayfair , it
621-661: The suspension, however he ultimately resigned as an MP in September 2023, triggering a by-election in his Tamworth constituency which the Conservatives lost to Labour . Historically and by tradition, only gentlemen could become full members after being proposed and seconded by two current members who have known the applicant and been members themselves for at least two years. From the 1970s onwards, there were female associate members, meaning they were unable to vote. On becoming Conservative leader in 1975, Margaret Thatcher
648-619: Was formed at the Thatched House Tavern in 1832 and its first premises were in Carlton House Terrace (provided by Lord Kensington) , from which it drew its name. These premises were quickly found too small. The second clubhouse was situated near the Reform Club at 94 Pall Mall, London , and was purpose-built in 1835. It was replaced by a third clubhouse on the same site in 1856. The Caen stone used on
675-575: Was made an honorary member of the club and, as such, until 2008 was the only female member entitled to full membership. Thatcher was elected (in May 2009) to the vacancy, as the club's second president, succeeding her only predecessor Harold Macmillan who had died in 1986. A separate, unrelated Ladies' Carlton Club was established after the First World War as a social and political centre for Conservative women. It closed in 1958. A full history of
702-402: Was originally established at 4 Chesterfield Street , off Curzon Street in Mayfair , in 1693 by an Italian immigrant named Francesco Bianco as a hot chocolate emporium under the name Mrs. White's Chocolate House . Tickets were sold to the productions at King's Theatre and Royal Drury Lane Theatre as a side-business. White's quickly made the transition from teashop to exclusive club and in
729-522: Was the club's chairman, was a member for fifteen years but resigned in 2008, over the club's declining to admit women. White's is a member of the Association of London Clubs. In January 2018, calling themselves 'Women in Whites', a group of female protesters infiltrated the club to highlight its single-sex policy, one managing to gain entry by pretending to be a man. They were removed. The club
#633366