London's secret superpower? Its world-class members' clubs

BEFORE I knew anything about anything, I always imagined that Los Angeles would have more private clubs than any other city in the world.

- Dylan Jones

It stood to reason, I thought, as LA is always full of celebrities and if there’s one thing that celebrities hate more than anything else it’s muggles. If you’re a famous person then the very last place you want to find yourself is somewhere where you are forced to mix with people who aren’t famous.

But I was wrong (although not about slebs avoiding muggles). There are hardly any private members’ clubs in LA and most of them are owned by a Brit, Nick Jones, the wizard who invented Soho House.

No, the city with the greatest density of members-only clubs is London, and they’re all full, every night they’re open. A few years ago I was working on a list of the best clubs in London, and, unable to sleep one night, I started making my own list, counting them like people used to count sleep. I got to 50 before I started checking my phone.