Pratt's Club, London

This is a club, which means that the bar may be only open to members.

Founded in the mid-nineteenth century by Nathaniel Pratt, steward to the Duke of Beaufort, and now owned by the Duke of Devonshire, Pratt's is dining club of an aristocratic and upmarket nature. There are no female members. The club premises are in a modest (for the area) townhouse and small; the basement dining room can accommodate only 14 people at one table. The waiters are traditionally all called George. When the first female one was recruited in the 1980s, the potential problem was overcome by calling her Georgina!

The club is thought to have around 600 members. Past members have included Tory grandees Harold Macmillan, Duncan Sandys and Randolph Churchill. Michael Heseltine, then Deputy Prime Minister, was reputedly blackballed from membership in the 1990s.