The fondly-remembered TV series Yes, Minister and its sequel Yes, Prime Minister often featured mandarin Sir Humphrey Appleby holding sotto voce off-the-record after-hours meetings in London private members’ clubs.
That's a really innteresting & informative post, Seth. I've often wondered about the clubs depicted in the TV series and which ones they were supposed to be (isn't there also an actual Civil Service Club, too?). Funnily enough, I'll be referencing a quote from 'Yes Prime Minister' in one of my upcoming sermon-intros!
Yes, the Civil Service Club is on Great Scotland Yard (and is covered in my new book, along with all the other existing clubs). It's a very friendly and convivial 14,000-member club, very much the "local" for many Whitehall-based civil servants; but it's not the sort of small-scale place that Permanent Secretaries go to for the kinds of discreet after-hours conversations seen in 'Yes, Minister.'
Has anyone a copy of the BBC series A Gentleman's Club, which ran in the late eighties? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Gentleman%27s_Club
That's a really innteresting & informative post, Seth. I've often wondered about the clubs depicted in the TV series and which ones they were supposed to be (isn't there also an actual Civil Service Club, too?). Funnily enough, I'll be referencing a quote from 'Yes Prime Minister' in one of my upcoming sermon-intros!
Yes, the Civil Service Club is on Great Scotland Yard (and is covered in my new book, along with all the other existing clubs). It's a very friendly and convivial 14,000-member club, very much the "local" for many Whitehall-based civil servants; but it's not the sort of small-scale place that Permanent Secretaries go to for the kinds of discreet after-hours conversations seen in 'Yes, Minister.'