So What Is The Best Club?

 

Whoa, tricky question because they're all good in their different ways. For sheer apex predator awesome it has to be White's. If you're a Prime Minister or own half the planet you may be invited to join. I'm not a member, oddly, and that's curious, because I am the Commandant of an irregular troop of light horse, the DLC (Dallas Light Cavalry). Huh.

Boodles

White's being shut to us, we move down St. James by a few hundred yards and land at Boodles. What a beautiful and comfortable Club! Winston Churchill used to sit in its storied bay window and watch passers by. I love that place and used to sit in its famous window, imagining Churchill's shade, but haven't been there in many years; I always think of the smell of coal fires when I remember it. It has, by the way, an amazing 18thC dining room and outstanding wine, obvs.

Carlton

So, walk across the road and what d'ye see? Brooks. I know nothing of Brooks. Keep walking and lo and behold, the Carlton Club. I used to enjoy that place in the '90s, when you could smoke in its Smoking Room and everything was cool and cashless. Just sign a chit, sorta thing. Haven't been there in ages. Still, you know it's good, there was a weighing machine next to the member's dining room. Perhaps there still is.

EIC

Next up. Carlton Club reverie over, stride forth into St. James Square, and what do you find? A veritable cornucopia of Clubs. The East India ain't shabby and offers a great Sunday lunch; order salmon and roast beef from the trolley if you're smart, and you won't be disappointed. 

In & Out

Replete, walk across the way to the Naval & Military (In & Out) to enjoy well-priced cocktails before heading over to the Reform Club on Pall Mall (not open on weekends apart from accommodation and an excellent breakfast). Excelsior. Of course there's others on that strip, notably the Travelers (Trav) and the Athenaeum, which I strangely haven't been to, all in good time. 

Speaking of which, there used to be place called the United Services Club, opposite the Athenaeum, which apparently set the officers mess tenor of Clubland. It's now something awful, the Institute of Directors, where people have business lunches and learn how to do Powerpoint when not checking the market on their phones. It is not a club, sadly, so don't be fooled.

NLC Bar

Pall Mall and Waterloo Place aside, you might want to keep walking towards Trafalgar Square, only to end up at the jolly old NatLib. Yes, the National Liberal Club, founded by Gladstone and still very much alive today. I like it for its exceptionally high ceilings and spectacular terrace overlooking the Embankment and its gardens. Most congenial and hardly snobby at all.

I love the Reform Club

Now, dear readers, all five of you, there are many more clubs and they're all awesome, but this quick shoot-out's based on the ones I mostly visit, apart from White's, and these days Boodles and the Carlton. My favorite? 

Unfair question because they're all most excellent, but I love the East India for Sunday lunch, the Reform for all 'round greatness, not least garden and architecture, the In & Out for a great courtyard where and for being in "Nancy Astor's place," not shabby, and the NatLib because rough and ready Gladstonian greatness, and you can smoke, eat and drink on its enormous terrace. So, each one is best in its particular way and what you want it for. Overall? I vote the Reform as the best on this list, but that's just me, I like them all.

So there you have it.

Clubland Forever,

LSP

The Peoples Coin

 

Have you been following DOGE$, the Peoples' Coin, fashioned after a lovable Shiba Inu dog? Sure you have, some of you may even have wisely invested in the adorable dog coin. Good for you if so, DOGE$ is testing .45 as we speak. 

Let's see our playful pup run to $1, $10 and beyond. In the meanwhile, think yourselves lucky if you bought  in at .03. Our playful friend's currently resting at around .43; run, pup, run! Well, if it all works out I'll rent a room at the Club and we can celebrate. All invited, obviously.

Cheers,

LSP

Clubs

 

Have you noticed there's this weird axiom or principle. Viz. Don't go to war against Russia."Ha, ha!" you say, "We are so powerful now that we can defeat that puny 13 time zone state, with its peasant ways and backwards obsession with artillery." Like how weird, here's a country which actually makes shells for its guns, how primitive and stupid.

Then there's Western Europe, which has gambled for decades on never, ever having to fight another kinetic war. You know, with guns and missiles and actual soldiers. Oops.

In other news, the Eagles are gearing up for an RV in London. This means, for me, revitalizing club memberships. Witch one? I hear the yuck Reform's going cheap. Then there's the nasty National Liberal Club. Abhorrent, but think of the reciprocity.

The Bangalore Club, the Bermuda Yacht Club, our very own Petroleum, and on across the world. And you get a beautiful Thames Embankment terrace, which we love. And reciprocal at the good old East India and the nasty Army club in DC.

Ad pursuit of happiness,

LSP