Garrick Club: Private mens' club finally votes to admit women for first time in 193 years

The Garrick Club has voted to admit women for the first time in its 193-year history – and there is already a list of new members thought to be nominated for inclusion.

The central London private members’ club has been strictly male-only since it was founded in 1831. However yesterday’s vote to allow female members passed, with 59.98 per cent of votes in favour.

Former culture minister Lord Vaizey said the Garrick Club was not “a place full of men plotting to run the country”, adding that he supported women being admitted as members. The former club member told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme: “I don’t think the Garrick is a secret cabal of men that is quietly running a country that has now been broken up. I think it’s just a convivial place where people go and have lunch and dinner, and that’s as valid for women as it is for men.”

There is understood to be a list of seven women whom members plan to nominate for inclusion. Actress Juliet Stevenson, who is believed to be on the list, said she would be “interested” in becoming a member of the Garrick Club. Other women on the list include the classicist Dame Mary Beard, former home secretary Amber Rudd, Channel 4 News presenter Cathy Newman, new Labour peer Baroness Hazarika, Coventry University chancellor Margaret Casely-Hayford and former appeal court judge Dame Elizabeth Gloster.

Stephen Fry

A vote was held on Tuesday evening, at the Covent Garden address in central London, formerly known as the Freemasons’ Tavern. Members wearing the club’s unique pale pink and green silk tie gathered to cast their vote – and some submitted it remotely – after arguments were made for and against women becoming members. Actor Stephen Fry was among those to argue in favour of the change, according to The Guardian. One supporter of the decision said: “A remarkable club will become more remarkable and it will continue to thrive rather than die.”

And Rachel Reeves, Labour chancellor, called it “progress” for women. “I couldn’t believe that they were still not allowing women in, in 2024,” she told LBC radio. She said that while there was a place for women-only refuges, hospital wards and prisons, the list of protected spaces should not include private members clubs. “I’m not going to be queueing to join up but I think it is important that all clubs and institutions welcome men and women. It’s extraordinary we are still having this debate today,” she added.

But Lord Vaizey recalled how different the culture was when he was a member of the club. The dad of two, culture minister in David Cameron”s cabinet, reacted to the vote today.

Lord Vaizey, MP for Wantage, Oxfordshire, from 2005 to 2019, added: “When I was a member of the Garrick, it really was quite backward – women couldn’t even walk up the front stairs, they couldn’t dine in the main dining room. All of that has changed a long time ago, thankfully.

“But I didn’t particularly feel that the Garrick was a place full of men plotting to run the country. I fully support the idea that women should be members of the Garrick as well as men, but as I say, I don’t think it’s constructed in a way to keep women away from power.”