Gentlemen’s clubs are not just strip joints like ‘Spearmint Rhino’ or ‘Stringfellows’, but predominately ‘members-only’ private clubs of the type originally setup for and by English upper class men in the 18th century, and popularised by English upper-middle class men and women in the late 19th century.  The original clubs were established in the West End of London, where even today, the area of St. James’s is still sometimes referred to as ‘Club-land’.  To some degree clubs took over the role occupied by coffee houses in 18th century London, and reached the height of their influence in the late 19th century.  The first clubs, such as White’s and Boodle’s, were highly aristocratic in flavour, and provided a private environment in which to carry out gambling, which was still illegal outside of members-only establishments.  The 19th century brought an explosion in the popularity of clubs, particularly around the decade of the 1880’s.

     At their height, London had over 400 such establishments like that of the Reform Club. - Women also set about establishing their own clubs in the late nineteenth century, such as the Ladies Institute, and the Ladies Athenaeum.  There are perhaps some 25 traditional London gentlemen’s clubs of particular note, from the Athenaeum to White’s, but increasingly people in politics and business hire club premises in the UK and around the world for debates and conferences on current affairs, for example, the Commonwealth Club in London counts former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, and former Australian Prime Minister John Howard as influential people who have spoken there.

     Similar clubs exist in some major cities outside of London, notably the Liverpool Athenaeum, The Clifton Club in Edinburgh, and The St James’s Club in Manchester, many interest groups meet in these kinds of clubs, the Clifton Club in Bristol was founded in 1818 and occupies an imposing building in one of the most exclusive streets in the city, and remains one of the most prestigious and socially exclusive clubs outside of London.  Guernsey in the Channel Islands has a gentleman’s club outside the United Kingdom proper, The United Club, founded in 1870, and India has several gentlemen’s clubs in most of the major cities including New Delhi, Mumbai, Shimla, Calcutta, Chennai etc., and like that of the UK, these clubs were mainly started by officers of the British Raj, and also by Indian aristocracy and intellectuals in general.  Most clubs are located in expensive and old down town areas of old cities and have waiting lists of 20 to 30 years and more for membership.  Gaining membership to one of these clubs is considered a sign of ‘having arrived’ by the Indian elite since it shows wealth, political and societal connections and often a familial pedigree.

     Most of the gentlemen’s clubs in India are registered ‘charities’ or ‘not-for-profit ventures’, however, since the 1990’s various for profit clubs have been started by real estate developers and corporations with limited social success.  Most major cities in the United States have at least one traditional gentlemen’s club.  Gentlemen’s clubs are more prevalent, however, in older cities such as New Orleans and around the East Coast in New York City, [which has the largest number of prominent clubs], Philadelphia, Boston, and Washington, DC.  Some American clubs have shared relationships with the older clubs in London, with each other, and with other clubs around the world.  The oldest existing American clubs date to the 18th century; the State in Schuylkill in Philadelphia, founded in 1732, is arguably the oldest club in North America, the Old Colony Club in Plymouth, Massachusetts founded in 1769, is also one of oldest gentlemen’s clubs in North America. The Yale Club of New York City, comprising a clubhouse of 22 stories and a worldwide membership of over 11,000, is the largest gentlemen’s club in the world.  Gentlemen’s club is taking several phases in Canada. The students of the University Of Waterloo in Ontario run gentlemen’s club in which they discuss practical politics with a cup of coffee.

     Australia has several gentlemen’s clubs including the Australian Club [Sydney & Melbourne], the Melbourne Club, the Adelaide Club, the Union, University & Schools Club [Sydney], the WA Club, the Weld Club [Perth], the Athenaeum Club [Melbourne; named after its counterpart in London], the Savage Club [Melbourne], the Brisbane Polo Club [housed in the heritage listed Naldham House in the centre of the central business district].  Only the Brisbane Polo Club and the Kelvin Club in Melbourne allow women to enjoy full membership.

     South Africa is home to the Rand Club in downtown Johannesburg, the Cape Town Club, the Owl Club and the Durban Club, founded in 1852 and has been running continuously since inception.  Some clubs have highly specific membership requirements.  For example, the Caledonian Club in London requires ‘being of direct Scottish descent, that is to say, tracing descent from a Scottish father or mother, grandfather or grandmother or having, in the opinion of the Committee, the closest association with Scotland’.  The Yale Club is typical of university clubs: is open to ‘all who have a connection with its university’, in this case Yale University, while the Reform Club requires its potential members ‘to attest that they would have supported the 1832 Reform Act’, whilst certain members of the East India Club ‘must have attended one of its affiliated public schools’.

     And these again just quoted clubs are only a handful, as I’ve not really even mentioned Russia, Europe, the Middle-East or other parts of the world that too all have their own group on elitist clubs, - that the like of us ordinary folk haven’t a chance in hell of every being permitted to join, so therefore will never be able to even taste a morsel from the huge slices of cake these clubs are set-up for, so as they can divide and distribute to their exclusive members, who each in turn go about divvying up the worlds trillions of pounds, dollars and Euro’s or whatever currencies they can stuff under their mattresses, as they exchange huge building and maintenance contracts programs that all the worlds governments annually spend via the massive network of procurement deals and plans that include all the spending for the worlds future and development.  Imagine, there you are, and your company deals in ‘cement’, and the man next to you, a fellow ‘brother’, has the say-so to purchase what is necessarily required to build a massive dam project that’s about to commence in the next month or so, what do you think would happen; - Kerching, kerching!

     And if things aren’t bad enough with the middle-classes occupying the centre strata of the pyramidal system of the Freemasons, then you’ll find the majority of the remaining foot soldiers [including infiltrated groups such as Anonymous], whom willingly and ignorantly will carry-out the final phase and orders of the illuminati, - as they’re ironically a bit like the whip wielding camel riders Mubarak employed in Cairo, to help try a quell the recent uprising, or similar to those miners who were paid by Romania’s Nicolae Ceaușescu, in his final moments of desperation as he tried to cling onto power, and whom those tin hat miners descended on the villages and towns where the revolutionaries were trying to get their voices heard, - with hammers and pickaxes in hand, they beat the crap out of many so called fellow citizen or neighbour, - or even like those “mercenary fighters” Col. Gaddafi too recently employed to batter, shoot and kill his own people who dare ask for change and to have ‘some sort of democracy’ in their lives, - that is of course if it ever really happened that way.

    There are around 2,200 affiliated working men’s clubs in the UK, and are a type of private social club founded in the 19th century in industrial areas of the UK and particularly the North of England, to provide recreation and education for working class men and their families.  Most clubs affiliate to the Working Men’s Club and Institute Union [commonly known as the CIU or C&IU] of private members clubs in the UK & N. Ireland, with about 3,000 associate clubs.  One club in the Republic of Ireland, the City of Dublin Working Men’s Club is also affiliated, in all these clubs represent a membership of around six million members, whom a percentage are freemasons as well.  The CIU is affiliated to the Committee of Registered Clubs Associations [CORCA], in which has thousands of registered clubs, i.e. London Transport, British Rail, Banks Associations, Rugby clubs, football clubs etc. with millions of members.

     The Royal British Legion [RBL], sometimes referred to as simply The Legion, is the United Kingdom’s leading charity providing financial, social and emotional support to those who have served or who are currently serving in the British Armed Forces, and their dependants.  It was granted a Royal Charter on the 29th

May 1971 to mark its fiftieth anniversary which gives the Legion the privilege of the prefix ‘Royal’. The Royal British Legion has an extensive network of Social Clubs called Legion Halls throughout the United Kingdom; sometimes these are known as United Services or Ex-Servicemen’s Clubs. The Royal British Legion also has branches in the Republic of Ireland, and spread around the world, mostly in mainland Europe, but also in America, and Azerbaijan amongst other world nations. ^[1]

     Anyone can join the Legion, and it is no longer required to have served in the military.  Then last but not least, there are thousands of social clubs, where millions of groups of people meet, generally they form a common interest, occupation or activity, e.g. hunting, fishing, politics or charity work, and as well as social clubs, there are a whole variety of other types of clubs having some social characteristics, for example specific single-activity based clubs, military officers clubs, country clubs, golf clubs, tennis clubs etc.

Extract from Trapped in a Masonic World - http://www.trappedinamasonicworld.co.uk