In mid-March the Garrick Club came under intense fire for excluding women from membership. Questions were asked about other well-known London clubs. Some have changed their rules so women can become members. They include the Carlton, where reform was achieved with some difficulty, as Alistair Lexden explained in a letter published in The Daily Telegraph on 26 March.
SIR -- “Even places like the Carlton”, Ed Cumming notes, have admitted women as members (Features, March 22).
The Carlton Club certainly took its time. From the 1920s until 1958, a separate Ladies’ Carlton Club existed, lavishly equipped with squash courts and a swimming pool.
Agitation for a change in the Carlton’s rules began after Margaret Thatcher became Conservative leader in 1975. The Carlton got round the immediate problem by making her an honorary member, just like all her predecessors, since, curiously, women were not barred from that category of membership.
Two years later, women started to be admitted as associate members, paying a lower subscription - much to delight of the financially prudent among them. By the 1990s their admission as full members had gained wide support, creating bitter division within the club. A number of members resigned. Two votes in 1998 and another in the year 2000 produced a majority for change, but not the two-thirds majority that the Club’s rules stipulated.
That was finally obtained in 2007, the year of the Club’s 175th anniversary.
Lord Lexden
Co-author The Carlton Club 1832-2007 (2007)
London SW1
