After the end of the tour, we decided to backtrack to the clubbing district of London. You see, in the novel “Around the World in Eighty Days” by Jules Verne, the protagonist is Phileas Fogg, an English gentleman and member of the Reform Club. One evening he gets involved in an argument over a newspaper claim that it is possible to go around the world in 80 days (the novel is set in 1872). The gentlemen think that it makes a fine theory but won’t work in practice, to which Mr. Fogg wagers 20,000 pounds that he can do it and departs the same evening with his assistant, Monsieur Passepartout.
Needless to say, Dad and I set off to find the Reform Club since we were attempting something of a similar vein in going around the world in thirty days. It was a bit harder to find than I thought. These Gentleman’s clubs are very selective in their membership and don’t like to advertise, and there weren’t any signs or markings on the outside of the building to indicate it. However, we asked a passing street cleaner and she pointed us to the proper building.
We took our fair share of pictures and before long the doorkeeper started giving us sour looks and eventually closed the door since the unwashed masses dared to stand outside by the entryway. In all honesty, they probably do get a fair number of people around the year who try to visit simply because of the Jules Verne novel.
The Reform Club was founded in 1836 and has admitted women starting in 1981. If you seek membership in the Reform club, you need to be proposed and seconded by current members with personal knowledge of you. If accepted, they say that the entrance fee is paid in three yearly arinstallments though they don’t specify exactly how much it is. According to their website, you can actually arrange tours for about $12 a person.
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