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1 week ago
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The Savile Club, one of London’s last remaining gentleman’s clubs, has opted to preserve its men-only status, with members voting against reforming the rules to allow women to join.
During a heated emergency general meeting on Tuesday evening, about 53% of members present rejected a motion proposing redrafting the club’s regulations in order to permit women to be admitted to the 157-year-old organisation.
Members opposed to the admission of women, described the club as a rare place where “men can be themselves without pretension” and said the Savile was “under attack from the woke mind virus”, one attender said. They argued that the “dynamics in the bar and the camaraderie” would be damaged by the arrival of female members.
At least five men were understood to have resigned in protest at the outcome. After the vote, a long stream of mostly white men wearing sober ties and suits, many with umbrellas, a few in claret-coloured trousers or tweed jackets, waistcoats and bow ties, carrying their overcoats over their arms, left the central London Thistle hotel, which hosted the event.
Most refused to comment, except for one man who remarked: “We won! No women.”
The vote came as several of the capital’s surviving gentlemen’s clubs wrestle with whether they should change their membership rules to admit women after last year’s decision by members of the Garrick Club to abandon its men-only status.
The Savile Club was established in 1868 as a meeting place for writers and artists and its current membership of upwards of 1,000 people is said to include journalists, academics, musicians, scriptwriters, television executives, vicars and City workers, who pay about £1,900 in annual subscriptions.
Its white stucco Mayfair building has a large ballroom, a snooker room, a library, a dark wood-panelled bar, a marble-columned dining room with a menu by Michelin-starred chef, Michael James.
Briefcases, business papers, mobile phones and newspapers are not permitted in the club’s main rooms. Women are allowed inside as guests, but need to be accompanied by the man who has invited them in.
Members arguing in favour of changing the rules to allow women to join said that the club’s no-women policy was making it harder to rent out rooms in the Brooke Street building and was consequently harming club revenues, according to one member who attended.
One speaker told the meeting that his son’s employers, Google, had informed him that it was now unacceptable to host meetings at the club.
“We have lost, and may continue to lose, friends who will feel they cannot continue at a club that decides to continue not to accept women,” a written summary of arguments in favour of allowing women to join stated.
“If we want the best members, why limit ourselves to half the potential candidates when there are so many women, in the arts and elsewhere, who would make excellent Savilians?”
Attempting to explain the appeal of a men-only club, one member said he thought men liked the idea of a “man cave, a place where blokes feel that they can go and unwind”.
An acrimonious atmosphere had developed in recent weeks over preparations for the emergency general meeting, as some members opposed to women joining threatened to take out a high court injunction to prevent the club from allowing people to register their votes remotely. In the face of this legal threat, club officials last week decided to abandon plans for remote voting.
“The older members, many of whom were unable to make it to the meeting in person, tend to be more in favour of women. It’s the younger members who are more opposed to women,” one attender said, asking not to be named because club rules require members not to speak about the organisation. He described the vote as “disappointing”.
“The Savile now seems to have an unfair share of young fogeys from the City and political consultancies who enjoy throwing their weight and cash around.”
The 141-year-old Flyfishers’ Club, which occupies rooms on the top floor of the Savile building, voted to admit women in October, after several high-profile female anglers complained about being excluded.
The Savile has been contacted for comment.
