EXCLUSIVE CLUB

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20916, 22 September 1939, Page 3

EXCLUSIVE CLUB

KING HAD TO WAIT A club which was so exclusive that King Edward VII was not allowed to enter is to close. Ifr is the Alexandra Club in Grosvenor Street, West London, the first women’s club in Britain. It was founded in 1883 by a group of titled women, and at first was considered by some to be “rather fast.” At the time it was called the Ladies’ Club. Once when Queen Alexandra, then Princess of Wales, was lunching at the club, King Edward called for her. He was not allowed in, and had to wait on the doormat. The story goes that King Edvard chuckled and remarked that, as the club was so respectable, it was entitled to bear his wife’s name. And so it was named. For 50 years the club never allowed a man through its doorways. Then, In 1033, faced with declining membership, the committee decided to allow men in, but only for tea and in a special room. Dare Not Stay in Hotel When the club was founded no woman dare slay alone at an hotel. It simply was not done. It was to allow women living in the country to make occasional trips to London, without waiting for their menfolk to accompany them, that Clara Lady Vincent and six other members of the Court circle formed the club. No woman Who has not been presented at Court has ever been elected to membership. Some of the founder members arc still living, aged over 90. It has not been uncommon for four generations to be members at the same time. It was at one time .so fashionable to Hunch there that leaded lights had to \ be installed the windows of Hie dining-room in order to prevent unseemly struggles to obtain seals in which lunohers could be seen from the After the club closes members will move across Grosvenor direct to the Empire Club, with which the Alexandra is amalgamated.