Which Club Is Right For You?

Arguably the two most prestigious clubs in Britain are not clubs in the actual sense, but the VIP segments of two events that have come to typify the British experience. Not for them are the accoutrements of the Mayfair townhouse: the porticoed entrance and curtain rods emblazoned with coats of arms. Accession to these clubs is not granted via classic nomination and secondment, but by private invitation from the governing body or friends in places higher than one’s own.

These are clubs, indeed, only in the empirical sense: money-can’t-buy, who-do-you-know environments that reach their annual apogee during the Season. The first is Car Park 1 at Royal Ascot, whose members would sooner forego the event entirely than attend it from Car Park 2. The second is the Royal Box on Centre Court at The Championships, Wimbledon, known to true devotees simply as ‘Wimbles’.

The Season extends to other clubs, too. The Hurlingham Club, will host Chestertons’ annual Polo in the Park from June 5–7, as well as the Armani Cup from June 23–27. The clubs on Pall Mall, are decked out for peak wedding season. At Royal Ascot, the Calvary and Guards Club welcome guests to their own marquee within the Royal Enclosure. The House of Koko, a members’ club that backs onto the cult north London music venue, normally would have set up camp in the fields near Glastonbury for members dropping upwards of £10,000 on five days’ worth of revelry, were it not for the festival taking a fallow year in 2026 and are instead taking over a fiñca hotel in Ibiza for the opening of that particular season, from June 3–7.

The Athenaeum

Are you exceptionally clever? Are libraries your happy place? Do you enjoy long, sweeping lawns backing onto other members’ clubs, to whence you can retire in the summer between meetings in St James’s and before a night at the theatre? I know, I know: it all sounds rather lovely. The London Library is also just around the corner.

The Athenaeum has nurtured centuries of British thought among its lofty, neo-Classical environs — and the lure of being able to glean some of that intellectual heritage is undeniably appealing, if only by osmosis. Careful, however: the architectural pretentiousness of the building’s façade, complete with a gold statue of Athena, does not extend to its members. These are some very serious people indeed. ‘I’m sure you’re aware that we have had quite a few Nobel Prize winners among us,’ the club’s erstwhile chairman told a member of Country Life staff when he joined in the early Aughts. ‘It’s rather more than France.’

The Hurlingham Club

Anyone wondering whether The Hurlingham is right for them falls into one of two categories. Either you believe the club might one day lift the cap on its wait list (so, a wishful thinker) or you are the offspring of generational members and have been using the facilities since before you were born. You wonder, now that you’re all grown up and working in public relations, whether you might be better off joining Third Space instead. It’s so near the office, after all, and the showers there actually have doors. However, it’s also £245 a month and mum and dad still pay for The Hurlingham — so then again, maybe not.

Hurlingham Club facade — Tucked away in leafy Fulham, the Hurlingham Club’s wait list has been closed for over a decade.

White’s

Were the happiest days of your life those you spent at an all-boys’ boarding school? Is your favourite pudding spotted dick? Do you enjoy the idea of your name appearing alongside Beau Brummell’s in the club’s bettings book? Do you feel, frankly, that the Garrick was wrong to accept women in 2024 when it caved under pressure from The Guardian, of all places? There can be no sacred cows — not even the monarch’s wife.

If all this strikes a chord — and you are of the male persuasion — then White’s may be just the ticket. It is, after all, the oldest club in London, the oldest in Britain and, consequently, the oldest in the entire world. That’s got to carry something—not cachet, because you wouldn’t be caught dead using such a word, but perhaps heft? Clout? The heritage of a once-great culture? Anyway, no time to waste: you have a million pounds to make before lunch.

Maison Estelle

Do you find most Mayfair clubs to be a little dour these days? Maison Estelle, whose sumptuous yet homely interiors feel like something out of the Country Life Top 100, is something of a Mecca for London’s young financial minds who find their parents’ clubs a little dated. They also enjoy the idea of being somewhere that hosted one of the BAFTA afterparties in 2025, which would have been rather complicated to do at White’s, as they would have had to turn away Demi Moore.

Maison Estelle appeals, moreover, to those curious about country life. With its oh-so-elegant outpost in the Cotswolds, Estelle Manor, the club offers city mice a chance to sample rural living ahead of their eventual move westwards, when they decide to raise a family and live somewhere that’s within easy reach of the Dragon School. The London site also enjoys immediate proximity to Bond Street, should one’s Rolex need servicing at any point or a meeting in Canary Wharf be put in the diary at the last minute. The Elizabeth Line is a five-minute walk away — or 10 minutes in a black cab.

See also: 5 Hertford Street

Maison Estelle facade in Mayfair

Maison Estelle’s austere façade belies more cosy interiors, although conversation is more likely to focus on stocks than on fabrics.

(Image credit: Maison Estelle)

The Royal Automobile Club

Is Top Gear your favourite television show? Do you own an Aston Martin? Do you sit on the board of Rolls Royce PLC? And have you ever won the Grand Prix? If so, great. If not, don’t worry. The RAC is one of the more welcoming and open-minded clubs on the Pall Mall circuit, which is to say that many members sign up primarily to enjoy the frankly unparalleled reciprocals.

As in the clubs of old, gossip and one-too-many-glasses of something or other are the tricks of the trade. This is a place where people pull up, get stuck in and know how to have fun; proverbial vroom-vrooms are more important than their motoring counterparts. Nonetheless, do brush up on your knowledge of luxury racing vehicles. If not essential, small ‘e’ enthusiasm for the topic is highly recommended.

Car Park One (Royal Ascot)

Do you enjoy racing? Ah, you do, do you? Car Park One is not available. Best head back to the Royal Enclosure, or Car Park Two.

Car Park One is for those who enjoy the rigmarole of Ascot without the actual pressure of committing to the races. Sure, you might pop into the Royal Enclosure and bet on whatever colt Andrew Balding has told you to bet on, even if you now have to pay a modest £25 per annum to retain the privilege of doing so — but, really, you’re here for the vibes. You got the horses out of your system at Cheltenham earlier this year and know the picnic is the main event: Scotch eggs, smashed potatoes with crème fraiche and copious amounts of smoked salmon. On the quiche-to-equine spectrum, your enthusiasm is more firmly for the former.

Conversation still must flow, even if the winnings do not. Brush up on your knowledge of the global stock market, although such things should already be second nature to you.

Black and white photograph of a group of people having a picnic at Royal Ascot — Who can put on the best picnic in car park one has become something of a competitive sport, almost on par with the races taking place in the stands next door.

The Groucho Club

Kids are awfully dull these days, aren’t they? It’s all me, me, me; health, sobriety and early nights. Whatever happened to fun? The sort our folks used to have? Well, members of the Groucho Club know how to have it in spades, so if the above felt oddly resonant, this could be one for you. Assuming, of course, that you are happy for your annual fee to subsidise those of the young and beautiful whom the Groucho has been trying to court for years, with free membership and literary events and the eternal line that ‘Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst used to come here all the time’. So did Salvador Dalí, who used to scribble a drawing on the back of his bill in lieu of paying (worth a whole lot more than the monies he’d have had to part with).

Yes, the Groucho was once beloved by artists — but if you find such a crowd intimidating, fret not. There aren’t many of them left here anymore.

See also: Soho House

The Royal Box (Wimbledon)

Are you the A list of the A list? Or betrothed to someone who is? Only then can you possibly hope to make it into this most coveted of clubs — together with The Prince and Princess of Wales, Sir David Beckham and Tom Cruise. Rest assured, however, that plenty have managed, although it certainly helps to be good looking and have starred in an episode of The Crown.

Is this the club for you? Well, that depends. Do you enjoy having cameras pointing in your face at all times? Do you still enjoy tennis when it goes to tie break for the third consecutive set and the sun beats down on your forehead in a proto-Sisyphean manner? You know all too well that a Panama hat is not suitable attire for BBC One. Also, do you prefer to watch tennis in stately-ish silence or curse whenever Novak Djokovic wins a point?

If your answer to any of the above was: ‘Irrelevant: I’ve received an invitation from the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club for what is indisputably the event of the year and you can bet your life savings that I’ll be going with bells on,’ then I guess you already know that this is the club for you and hardly need me to tell you otherwise. Fortune favours the invited.

Wills and Kate in the Royal Box at Wimbledon — The Prince and Princess of Wales enjoy prime views of the Wimbledon final from the Royal Box.

The House of Koko

Are you a member of the Argentine aristocracy? Or a minor royal from the house of Genoa? Perhaps a young banker who wants to join a club, but isn’t sure which? This one seems rather convenient, as it’s rather close enough to Islington (where you live), doesn’t have much of a wait list (so you’ve heard) and comes with a rooftop restaurant and balcony. What’s not to love?

Everyone here is attractive, too, which is one of the main reasons you wish to join a club in the first place. Nominally, of course, you are here to network — specifically, to talk music, as you run an independent record label somewhere in Farringdon. Andy Cato of Groove Armada is a close family friend and you are yourself a veteran of Koko, the concert venue, to which you started going when you were only 16.

You mourned what you thought was its death in 2020, when a fire swept through the concert hall, but soon found out about its redevelopment and the introduction of a members’ club at the back of the building. In fact, you were earmarked for founding membership, but decided against it at the time (it didn’t ‘align with your plans’). Things have changed, however: you’ve since resigned from several other clubs because you thought this one offered everything and more — although you’ve kept the gym as a personal insurance, as so much revelry cannot take place without you putting in some extra hours on the treadmill.

The Houghton Fishing Club

‘Membership of the Houghton Fishing Club is the dream of every serious fly-fisherman,’ this magazine wrote in 2008. Yet, as we caveated, it is ‘obtainable by only the very fortunate few’. Founded in 1822, Houghton is the oldest private fishing club in Britain and has exclusive fishing rights to 13 miles of the River Test in Hampshire. With 25-odd members, it is harder to get into than even the Marylebone Cricket Club (wait list: 30 years). No doubt, to many readers, this exclusivity will sound rather appealing. To which we ask: do you possess a title? Ideally, one that’s been in your family for far longer than the club has been around? If so, welcome: you’re probably more familiar with Houghton’s proceedings than we are. If not, dear reader, you may wish to kiss that particular dream goodbye.