And I think the same is true of all sorts of other angles. The art on the walls—it tells you all about obvious things. If it’s a military club, it’ll be people killing each other. If there’s a fishing club, people killing fish. If it’s a literary club, you’ll have authors and you’ll have libraries devoted to the works of members.
Some clubs have got very specific collections, There’s a club called Boodle’s, which has also had a very strong sort of aristocratic country membership, and they’ve got fish and horses everywhere, which is entirely appropriate. So it is often very reflective of the sort of club that you’re in.
The photos are striking, so it’s kind of the obvious question which is, which club did each of you find the most beautiful to go inside?
Laura Hodgson: I think the Athenaeum has the most beautiful library. I really love that. The staircase of the Athenaeum is spectacular, and it’s just got a very classical English feel. But if I was looking for the quirks of the club, there’s a club called the London Sketch Club, and I love their drawing space there, and the pictures around the wall, which are of the old cartoonists who were old members of the club.
Andrew Jones: They’re all beautiful, which is how they were selected for the book, I suppose. So I’d answer the questions differently, which is that the clubs that fascinate me the most visually, were the ones that I could never become a member of because I’m not a soldier, a pilot, a fisherman—I’m not all sorts of things. Those clubs are there for a very particular purpose and it’s just a different world. I love that. It’s very beautiful to go into a sort of microcosm somewhere.