White's Club
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| Formation | 1693 |
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White's is a gentleman's club in St James's, London, regarded as one of the most exclusive of its kind.
White's is the oldest gentleman's club in London, founded in 1693, and widely considered one of the most exclusive. Notable current members include Charles, Prince of Wales, Prince William, Duke of Cambridge, Conrad Black and Tom Stacey. Former British Prime Minister David Cameron was formerly a member for fifteen years but resigned in 2008, despite his father Ian Cameron having previously been the club's chairman, over the club's declining to admit women. White's continues to maintain its standards as an establishment exclusively for gentlemen; brief exceptions were made for the visits by Queen Elizabeth II in 1991, and 2016. White's is a member of the Association of London Clubs.
The club was originally established at 4 Chesterfield Street, off Curzon Street in Mayfair, in 1693 by an Italian immigrant named Francesco Bianco as a hot chocolate emporium under the name Mrs. White's Chocolate House. Tickets were sold to the productions at King's Theatre and Royal Drury Lane Theatre as a side-business. White's quickly made the transition from teashop to exclusive club and in the early 18th century, it was notorious as a gambling house; those who frequented it were known as "the gamesters of White's." The club gained a reputation for both its exclusivity and the often raffish behaviour of its members. Jonathan Swift referred to White's as the "bane of half the English nobility."
In 1778 it moved to 37–38 St James's Street. From 1783 it was the unofficial headquarters of the Tory party, while the Whigs' club Brooks's was just down the road. A few apolitical and affable gentlemen managed to belong to both. The new architecture featured a bow window on the ground floor. In the later 18th century, the table directly in front of it became a seat of distinction, the throne of the most socially influential men in the club. This belonged to the arbiter elegantiarum, Beau Brummell, until he removed to the Continent in 1816, when Lord Alvanley took the place of honour. It was here that Alvanley bet a friend £3,000 as to which of two raindrops would first reach the bottom of a pane of the bow window. It is not recorded whether he won his bet. Later, the spot was reserved for the use of the 1st Duke of Wellington until his death in 1852.
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