{{pp-semi-indef|small=yes}} {{Short description|Gentlemen's club in London}} {{EngvarB|date=June 2018}} {{Use dmy dates|date=June 2018}} {{Infobox company | name = Buck's Club | image = Bucks clubhouse.jpg | logo = Bucks logo.jpg | type = Gentlemen's club | genre = | fate = | predecessor = | successor = | foundation = {{Start date|1919}} | founder = | defunct = | location_city = London | location_country = United Kingdom, SW1 | location = 18 Clifford Street | locations = | area_served = | key_people = | industry = | products = | services = | revenue = | operating_income = | net_income = | aum = | assets = | equity = | owner = | num_employees = | parent = | divisions = | subsid = | homepage = [http://bucksclub.co.uk/ bucksclub.co.uk] | footnotes = | intl = }} '''Buck's Club''' is a gentlemen's club in London, located at 18 Clifford Street, established in June 1919<!--SOURCED BELOW-->. P. G. Wodehouse mentions it in some stories and modelled his Drones Club mostly after Buck's. It is probably best known for the Buck's Fizz cocktail, created there in 1921 by its bartender M<!--MC-->cGarry.
In 1979, Anthony Lejeune wrote in his book ''The Gentlemen's Clubs of London'' that "Buck's Club is the only London Club to have been founded since the First World War which ranks, in social prestige and elegance, with the best of St James's Street clubs: and like them, it is named after its founder."<ref>Lejeune, A. (1979) ''The Gentlemen's Clubs of London'', Dorset Press.</ref> In 2019, the club received media attention for its dinners, in which young women are invited to entertain the elderly male members.<ref name="FT" />
==History== During the First World War, Captain Herbert John Buckmaster (1881-1966)<ref>{{Cite web|date=2019-03-26|title=Herbert Buckmaster: the man who put the ‘Buck’ into Buck’s Fizz|url=https://oldshirburnian.org.uk/herbert-buckmaster/|access-date=2020-10-10|website=The Old Shirburnian Society|language=en-GB}}</ref> of the Royal Horse Guards and some of his colleagues agreed that after the war it would be good to establish a gentlemen's club that was somewhat less stuffy than existing clubs. They particularly wanted a club with an American cocktail bar, something then beyond the pale for most traditional gentlemen's clubs.
The club was established in June 1919<ref> {{Cite web | author = English Heritage | year = 1963 | title = "Cork Street and Savile Row Area: Clifford Street, South Side: No. 18 Clifford Street: Buck's Club" (page 482-88) | work = Survey of London: volumes 31 and 32: St James Westminster, Part 2 (at British History Online) | url = http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.asp?compid=41488#s6 | accessdate = 11 August 2007 | quote = Buck's Club was founded here in June 1919 by Captain H. J. Buckmaster 'and a number of fellow officers of the Blues'. }} </ref><ref name="Alexander-Sinclair2007"> {{Cite web |author = Alexander-Sinclair, Ian (report) |date = 2007 <!--BOTTOM LINK GOES TO 2007 PHOTO GALLERY--> |title = Bertie Wooster's Mayfair |work = Norman Murphy's talk at Wodehouse Week 2007 (The PGW Society UK) |url = http://www.pgwodehousesociety.org.uk/awwwnorman.htm |archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927005531/http://www.pgwodehousesociety.org.uk/awwwnorman.htm |archivedate = 27 September 2007 |quote = [...] Buck's Club, founded in 1919 by Herbert Buckmaster in nearby Clifford Street [...] McGarry was the barman at Buck's from 1919 to 1941. |url-status=dead |df = }} </ref><ref>Two less reliable and possibly inbred sources say 1918: [http://www.bachelors.se/web_clubs.htm Clubs list from The Royal Bachelors' Club] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070817222720/http://www.bachelors.se/web_clubs.htm |date=17 August 2007 }}; off-site wiki [http://wiki.webtender.com/wiki/Side-car Webtender.com]. </ref> and its American Bar was a focal point. American members were welcome although treated separately from a constitutional standpoint. The club for many years kept its tradition of sourcing members from the Household Cavalry regiments although its membership is now drawn from many walks of life and is renowned for its exuberance and the youth of its membership.{{citation needed|date=July 2014}}
The Club is probably best known for seeing the creation of the Buck's Fizz cocktail in 1921 by its first bartender, Mr McGarry (Barman from 1919 to 1941,<REF NAME="Alexander-Sinclair2007" /> sometimes "Malachy McGarry" or "Pat McGarry", or spelled "MacGarry", he is also usually credited with creating the Sidecar cocktail).
It receives three mentions in the stories of P. G. Wodehouse;<ref>The Buck's Club is visited by Bertie Wooster in 1923's ''The Inimitable Jeeves'' and is mentioned in 1931's ''Big Money'' and ''If I Were You''.</ref> Wodehouse modelled his fictional Drones Club after Buck's Club and the Bachelors' Club<!--SOURCED AT Drones Club-->, even naming his club's barman "Mc<!--MC-->Garry" too.
==Bond Street Horticultural Society== The "Bond Street Horticultural Society", also known as "Nieces' Night", is a dinner held several times a year at Buck's. On this occasion, the members are encouraged to invite young women to come along, who are then rotated between tables with each course.<ref name=FT>{{cite news |last1=Marriage |first1=Madison |last2=Wood |first2=Poppy |title=The Presidents Club investigation: one year on |url=https://www.ft.com/content/10cd18ca-1f26-11e9-b2f7-97e4dbd3580d |accessdate=25 January 2019 |work=Financial Times |date=25 January 2019}}</ref> While some women told the ''Financial Times'' that they enjoyed the attention by the all-male, mostly elderly members, others described the experience as unpleasant or "vile".<ref name=FT /> The club discussed discontinuing the tradition after the Presidents Club scandal in 2018 exposed sexual misconduct at another all-male high-society dinner, but decided against it.<ref name=FT />
==See also== *List of London's gentlemen's clubs
==Notes and references== {{Reflist}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book | last = Buckmaster | first = Herbert | title = Buck's Book: Ventures, Adventures and Misadventures | publisher = Grayson & Grayson | location = London | year = 1933 | isbn = }} *{{cite book | last = Thévoz | first = Seth Alexander | title = London Clubland: A Companion for the Curious | publisher = Robinson/Little, Brown | location = London | year = 2025 | isbn =978-1472149985 }}
==External links== * [http://bucksclub.co.uk/ Buck's Club.co.uk] – official website * [https://web.archive.org/web/20070928162305/http://www.welovelocal.com/en/london/westminster/soho/private-clubs/bucks-club-w1s3rf.html Location and photo of Buck's Club]
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{{Gentlemen's clubs in London}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Gentlemen's clubs in London Category:1919 establishments in England