The Travellers Club – why gentleman members won't let the ladies in
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Version 0 of 1. Where else can a chap escape "normal life" but in a near 200-year-old men-only private club? When Anthony Layden, chairman of The Travellers Club, consulted members on whether "ladies" should be allowed to join, there was, he confessed, "a degree of mutual incomprehension" between those for and against the idea. While women are welcome as guests throughout its posh Pall Mall home – other than in the smoking room and the cocktail bar – Layden, a former UK ambassador to Morocco and Libya, decided last year it was time to canvas opinions of members, who include foreign visitors and diplomats, on allowing ladies in. By 60% to 40%, the gentlemen at the club – founded in 1819 "for gentlemen who had travelled out of the British Isles to a distance of at least five hundred miles from London in a direct line" – decided they like things just the way they are. Thanks to Layden's account, obtained by the Evening Standard, we know there were strong expressions in favour of change at the club, whose patron is Prince Philip. One enthusiast suggested the male-only policy was half a century out of date. "Do we, a club for cosmopolitan internationalists, really wish to remain on a par with the Taliban?" asked one. Another suggested that if the club continued to bar travellers because they were women, it would be "out of key" with what people "accept and take for granted in their professional and personal lives". But the naysayers generally expressed themselves more strongly. Male congeniality would be destroyed, said one, warning that "hen parties would appear and shrill voices be heard". Another, backing what he called the "spirit and conviviality" at the club, added: "Whilst to some, this may conjure up images of the Symposium, Roman baths, clandestine cults and rugby clubs, there are a few refuges a gentleman ought to have." The written word cannot tell how firmly in a cheek a gentleman's tongue may have been while making such comments, but another opponent of change argued: "I see the club as a bastion and retreat from the rigours of normal life and despite being a young(ish) member, I would consider women to be in the normal-life category." Layden's recommendation, accepted by the club's general committee last month, was that the idea of letting women in should be taken no further. While he agreed "there are, as there have always been, many distinguished lady travellers and adventurers whose presence in the club would enhance our conversations", the future should remain "steady as she goes". He hoped those wanting change would hold back from pressing for it for the time being. |