b'THE CARNEGIE CLUBOpposite: Londons first clubs congregated in public spaces such as coffee houses and taverns. This page: by the 1800s, club culture had moved to private premises, with serving staff, annual dues and codes of etiquette17 CLondons first clubs congregated in the citysinstead cater exclusively to a select group of lubs have existed, in one form or another, throughout history, withcoffee houses and taverns. Therefuelledaffluent patrons. The gamble paid off. The people drawn to those with whomby excessive amounts of caffeine and ratherClub at Whites prospered, and the successful they share a background, interest orless salubrious libationsmen met to discussmodel was eagerly copied. Gentlemen who situation. While clubs are universal, thenews from Parliament and engage inhad formerly been happy to meet in the Club-with-a-capital-C is a very specificphilosophical debate. These early clubs werepublic space of the coffee houses now desired kind of institution. It evolved out of thenumerous and niche. From the serious tothe same privacyand implied statussocial spaces of Restoration England tothe sublime, there were clubs for politicalafforded to members of Whites. Suddenly become a quintessential part of British life.factions, shopkeepers, dandies, beggars,everyone wanted to be a member of a Club. A home-from-home for Londons mostmollies and more. What distinguished themJust as London society was highly affluent, the Club was a place where they andfrom Clubs was their lack of independentsegmented by class, politics and gender, so their contemporaries could privately meet,premises. That would soon change. too were its Clubs. Whites, Boodles and the converse and imbibe. Despite the political,Mrs Whites Chocolate Shop had beenCocoa Tree Club were for Tories, while Whigs economic and ideological changes that thefounded in 1693, but in 1736 its enterprisingjoined Brookss or the Beefsteak Club. The passing centuries have wrought, the Club hasproprietorin an early example of disruptiveOxford and Cambridge Club only admitted endured and is today enjoying a resurgencethinkingupended a hitherto successfulmembers of those universities, while a of popularity as a new generation discoversbusiness model by realising it would be moreprerequisite for joining the Travellers Club the allure of Club life.lucrative to close his doors to the public andwas that a prospective member had to have'