‘Ladies’ Clubs in London’, from Forum, 1896, pp. 684-694. Concerns the establishment and growth of ladies’ clubs in London and their various aims and objectives, often giving quite detailed physical descriptions of their layout. Includes the following:
The Pioneer Club, founded 1892, and its founder, Emily Massingberd; first in Regent Street then Bruton Street, Berkeley Square; emphasises its inclusion of working women and its lack of stress on social position (members used numbers instead of names); and mentions various members, including Mona Caird, Sarah Grand, Mrs Wynnford Phillips, Marie Corelli and Lady Henry Somerset;
The New Somerville Club, founded 1881, in Mortimer Street, later Oxford Street; encouraged interest in political and social problems; original members included Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, Barbara Bodichon, Frances Power Cobbe and Octavia Hill; its strong point being the reading room;
The University Club for Ladies [later the University Women’s Club, co-founded 1883 by Gertrude Jackson (Girton 1876)]; essentially a social venue;
The Writers’ Club, a ‘humble domain in the basement’ of Hastings House, Norfolk Street, Strand; condition of membership being that applicants must have done at least one piece of paid, published work; ‘distinctly a club for workers’, also, 'be it understood, 'writer' is strictly a feminine term'; mentions various members including [Frances] Hodgson Burnett and Mrs Humphry Ward;
Brief mention of other, essentially fashionable society clubs including the Green Park Club; the Alexandra Club, Grosvenor Street; the Victoria, Victoria Street; and the County Club, Hanover Square.