| Friday
June 6, 2008 |
| 'Member Me? |
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There was a time when a members' club was an institution of purest exclusivity. Gender, heritage, occupation, hobbies: the criteria for inclusion may have shifted plenty over the last couple of centuries, but there was always a sense of cohesive superiority.
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Nowadays,
there are so many of the blighters around that it's
hard not to keep bumping into the things. Many of the
old school private clubs are still knocking about, of
course - the intellectuals'
Athenĉum on Pall Mall, for example, and its neighbouring
Reform
Club - but the new 'egalitarian elitism' of the
modern membership phenomenon (everyone's welcome, so
long as your credit rating's good) has opened a whole
new can of worms.
With an excess in the over-40s group when Shoreditch
House first opened, they slashed their membership
fees and prioritised selection for the under-28s. Battling
an influx of male city-types, the
East Room recently did the same thing for women.
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TODAY'S
EVENT PICKS |
Get up-close and personal with Angela Reilly's hyperreal paintings at Rollo, 51 Cleveland St, W1, 10am-6pm. Free |
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Fresh outta NYC, Quentin Harris' disco party makes us happy. East Village, 89 Gt Eastern St, EC2, 9pm-4am. . £8 |
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The Southbank Sinfonia show off their orchestral talent in St. Yeghiché Armenian Church, SW7, 7.30pm £15 |
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See phantasmagoria or be tickled pink by Mandy Munden at Magic Night. Soho Revue, 11 Walkers Court, W1, 8pm £10 |
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Interiors
website mydeco launches its new and exclusive venture 'Design
Boutique'.