White's Gentlemen's Club 1800's

Men’s clubs in Regency England were the centers of the gentleman’s social life.

Clubs were created when men of every class were meeting at coffee houses or chocolate houses to play cards. Cheats and cards sharks were prevalent and so exclusive clubs came about to keep out the riffraff.

Below is the layout of White's. 

The three great clubs were Whites, Brooks’s and Boodle’s. All three were very exclusive. The men of the club would vote on a new member entering. They would call it an election if the man was accepted into the club. Each member would have a white ball and a black ball and when voting on a man to become a member would deposit the black or white ball into a specified box. Even if the box contained one black ball the man would be denied entrance into the club as a member. Hence the term, “They were blackballed.” came into circulation.

Whites was the most coveted of the three. It was originally, in 1693 an Italian owned  chocolate shop. Francesco Bianco the proprietor changed his name to Francis White. When White’s changed into a gentlemen’s club, it was a place for high-stakes gambling. It was politically conservative and the majority of its members were from the Tory party.  Such card games as whist, quinze, hazard and faro were some of the main games played. But other bets were also taking place. A difference of opinion would be recorded in a betting book and wagers were placed on such things as who would enter the club next or whose horse was the fastest.....