Barcelona residents have always been good at associating for the most diverse causes. Alongside century-old social clubs that bring together the city's elites, new projects for economic, social, or recreational clubs are flourishing, promising exclusivity, discretion, privileges, and a like-minded environment. The underlying model remains the traditional English club, although the passage of time has softened formalities, opened membership to women, and led to the emergence of clubs that try to balance being exclusive without being exclusionary.
In recent decades, there have already been some attempts to revamp the concept of the traditional private club. One of the most conspicuous was the Círculo Condal, promoted by Juli Capella and Quim Larrea, an experiment built in the heat of pre-Olympic euphoria. It aimed to modernize the concept of the British club by turning it into a cultural and recreational club, but it survived for only a short time. Today, it houses the headquarters of the Fundació Vila Casas on Casp Street.
Now, however, it seems that things are serious. This rebirth of the private club concept, until recently seemingly outdated, is not a local phenomenon. In London, clubs like 5 Hertford Street, opened in 2012 and with more than 3,000 aspiring members on a waiting list, are thriving thanks to their reputation as the best place for networking in the British capital. Both this club and the Groucho, another London club, are preparing their arrival in New York, in an expansion process that until recently would have seemed untimely. In Madrid, places like Matador, Alma - which is a women's club, although they admit "some good men" (sic) - and some more traditional ones, such as Argo, Nuevo Club, or La Gran Peña, are in good health. The exclusive traditional circles face new competition whose consolidation is yet to be seen…
Through the large window overlooking Diagonal Avenue, the hustle and bustle of the city can be seen from a room where proverbial calm reigns. The members themselves refer to the room as 'the fishbowl', in allusion to the usual presence of bigwigs inside. Since its inauguration in 1856, the Círculo Ecuestre (Balmes 169 bis) has brought together many of the most influential personalities in Barcelona's social and economic life, with a profusion of illustrious surnames on its list of members. Barcelona's most exclusive private club is located in an elegant modernist palace designed by architect Juan José Hervás Arizmendi in 1910, the Pérez Samanillo house, where it moved in 1950. Before that, it had other headquarters on Sant Pau street, on the Rambla de Santa Mònica, in Plaça de Catalunya and on Paseo de Gràcia. The latter was confiscated and destroyed by the anarchists of the F.A.I. during the Civil War. It defines itself as "a private, select and cosmopolitan business club where leisure and business, good food and exercise combine perfectly."
The Círculo Ecuestre has correspondence agreements with more than 180 private clubs on four continents, which can be accessed by showing a business card. It has up to nine spaces for holding events and meetings, as well as a restaurant, a gym, a small swimming pool and an annex building with 16 rooms where club members or their guests can stay. The Círculo Ecuestre periodically invites prominent personalities, organizes gastronomic activities and group trips for its members.
To join the club, a title with a nominal value of 4,000 euros must be acquired, and an additional 5,000 euros must be paid for admission rights. The monthly fee is 93 euros. Companies can also join the Círculo, acquiring four titles and paying 12,000 euros for admission rights. A total of 28,000 euros allows between 2 and 8 members to be registered. In its effort to rejuvenate the average age of its members, the Círculo offers more advantageous conditions to children or descendants of active members. Regarding the protocol, a suit and tie must be worn inside the facilities, although the dress code has been made more flexible at certain times.
This is the oldest private club in Spain that maintains its original headquarters. Although it shares a building with the Teatre del Liceu, the Círculo del Liceo (La Rambla 65) is completely independent of the theater's operations. It competes with the Círculo Ecuestre for the title of maximum exclusivity among the city's private clubs, although its activities are more oriented towards social and cultural life than business or economic matters.
It has about 800 members, of which approximately 60% are men and 40% are women. It is worth remembering that until the turn of the century, the club's statutes prohibited women from being members. The average age is around fifty, and the fee system works by scales related to age; there are corporate fees and for people who only only plan to stay in Barcelona for a maximum of 3 years. It is the only club among those consulted that refuses to make public the fees paid by its members. On the other hand, to become a member, one must have the signature of four current members who endorse the incorporation, in addition to having the subsequent approval by the club's Admissions Board.
Its members enjoy a series of elegant lounges, a conference room, a library, a restaurant, and various services, in an emblematic building in the city of Barcelona that it shares with the Gran Teatre del Liceu. They maintain correspondence with a hundred clubs around the world, and their heritage includes a valuable collection of modernist works of art.
Inaugurated in 1847, barely six months after the inauguration of the Gran Teatre del Liceu, it is still today a reference point for the social and cultural life of the elites of Barcelona and Catalonia. They organize conferences on opera, guided visits to entities and exhibitions, lunch-colloquiums with experts on current affairs, wine tastings, and chamber concerts, among other activities.
The Hedges Club (Balmes 220) has just officially opened its doors. It is a franchise of a British institution, Hedges & Butler, whose history dates back to 1667, when Edmund Harris founded one of the oldest wine and spirits trading businesses, which would eventually become a private club. The most prominent members of British, Spanish, Japanese, and Portuguese royalty visited it in its golden age, in the 19th century, and among its contemporary clients are many celebrities, with names like Sharon Stone, Mick Jagger, Penélope Cruz, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Scarlett Johansson, to name just a few.
Its promoter, Youcef Aden, who managed the London parent company, of which he was the majority partner, has decided to open the club in Barcelona, and has plans to do so also in Madrid and other European capitals. He has chosen a space located at Balmes, 220. A club that, before opening its doors, already has about 250 members and aims to reach 400, mostly from the business, executive, and creative world. The venue has three rooms: Regent (business), Burlington (relaxation), and the Carnaby Bar, in addition to the Hedges Tea Club, a gastronomic space that is also open to the general public. Inside, you can have any premium drink and have breakfast from Eggs Benedict to crepes, as well as lunch or dinner a repertoire of dishes that prioritize product and presentation (creams, salads, caviar, or Wagyu beef).
The use of mobile phones and any electronic device is prohibited in the Burlington room, in accordance with the rules of most self-respecting British clubs. If you pass the selection process (they are looking for influential people, although they claim to veto membership for politicians), the monthly fee is 75 euros and includes a bottle of champagne per month. The hours are extensive, from eight in the morning until 3 in the morning, and among the complementary services offered are concierge, accounting, tax, and legal advice, as well as the possibility of renting cars like Rolls Royce or Bentley for special occasions.
Also recently, The Wild Bunch (Espinoi, 8-10) has started operating, a business lounge created by businessman and sports consultant Uri Bueno. Clearly inspired by the British style, with an informal name that pays homage to Sam Peckinpah's western, it is a cozy space decorated according to the canons of English style, with the obligatory chester sofas, a billiard table, a library, a cigar bar, a smoking terrace, and even butler service.
The selection of members is personally handled by Uri Bueno, who has his professional office installed in the same space. Currently, there are just over fifty members, and the numerus clausus is set at one hundred. A place that aims to create a small ecosystem that promotes networking and brings together members who can also share leisure activities, from talks with renowned speakers to the celebration of the partners' domino league, including movie screenings in the cinema room, gastronomic tastings, or activities outside the club.
The monthly fee is 100 euros for individuals and 300 for companies. They also have private offices for exclusive use with prices starting from 480 euros per month.
Less than two years ago, this hotel and private club for creative professionals, belonging to the international eponymous chain, opened its doors. The first Soho House was born in London in 1995 at the hands of Nick Jones, and the formula has expanded to 18 locations in the most attractive capitals of Europe and North America: Berlin, Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam…
The Barcelona club (Plaça del Duc de Medinaceli, 4), whose opening required an investment of 60 million euros, combines a luxury hotel and a social club, and is located in the heart of the Gothic Quarter, with views of the port and facilities that include a cinema, gym, spa, social club, and restaurants (the one on the ground floor, Cicconi's, open to the general public). To be a member, the property requires one condition: to have a creative profession or spirit. There are various membership modalities depending on age and whether one wants to use the services of one or all of the chain's clubs, so fees range from 750 to 1,800 euros annually.
The first Soho House was born in London: a private club concept that did not neglect the slightest detail. Since then, the Soho House group has been expanding with great success. Berlin, Miami, New York, London or Chicago are some of the locations of these private clubs that house all kinds of facilities within the same building to facilitate the leisure and business of its members.
As in all Soho Houses in the world, you cannot talk on the phone or take photos in private areas, and the dress code prohibits ties for men and suit jackets for women. All very informal but with a lot of style.
The design, for which they have collaborated with Lázaro Rosa-Violán, is one of its main characteristics. To access the Soho spas, you don't need to be a club member. The one in Barcelona is inspired by a traditional Spanish pharmacy. This relaxing place has soundproofed treatment rooms, comfortable manicure and pedicure armchairs, and a heated pool...
In its gym (for members only), highlights include the training room, boxing, house ride classes (the latest spinning modality), the yoga area, a steam room, and a juice bar.
OneOcean Club was born with the intention of bringing together in its spaces the distinguished public that occupies the superyachts staying in the renovated marina of Port Vell, as well as the social elite of the city. In reality, the privacy of the space is mandatory due to the fact that it is located in an area that, since its remodeling, has restricted access, but becoming a member of this space is as simple as registering on its website for free. There are no fees to pay, but you must have a recommendation from a member.
It is divided into two main spaces: the one occupied by the restaurant, under the direction of chef Francisco Díaz, and the OneOcean Bar, a cocktail bar that was awarded as Best Bar in the World by the "Restaurant & Bar Design Awards", and which offers an idyllic space to have a drink lulled by the reflections of the sea and the play of light and shadows caused by its architecture.
They are not clubs, but almost
Spaces also operate in Barcelona that, without properly functioning as private clubs, play with the appearance of a certain hermeticism and exclusivity to attract their clients. Their reference is the speakeasies, a product of the American Prohibition (1920-1933), whose application had other dire effects such as the flourishing of smuggling and its associated mafias. Faced with that prohibition, establishments emerged that were accessed by passwords and were hidden in warehouses or camouflaged under the appearance of other businesses. In New York, it is estimated that there were 10,000 of them during Prohibition. Some were truly luxurious, with live musical performances and top-notch service, and others true dives. The entry of their clientele into these functioned like a private club. Some of the originals still survive in New York, as a tribute to an era, and the model has been copied all over the world despite the absence of prohibition. Thus, the cocktail bar Paradiso (Rera Palau 4) is hidden behind the refrigerator of a pastrami sandwich bar in the heart of Barcelona's Born neighborhood. The sandwiches, mind you, are not a mere cover-up, but are worth trying, both at the meager bar at the entrance and inside, where they can also be ordered à la carte. Upon crossing the refrigerator door, we find ourselves in a luxurious cocktail bar that stands out for the creativity in the presentation of its recipes. It is not a properly secret place, as attested by the frequent queues at the entrance, but what many of its regulars do not know is that it also has a sumptuously decorated secret chamber that is accessed by opening a wall in the bathroom of its warehouses. It is only accessible to those who rent it for private events.
In the warehouse of Javier de las Muelas' classic cocktail bar Dry Martini (Aribau 162) is the Speakeasy restaurant, a gastronomic space similar to the clandestine venues of Chicago and New York in the 1920s. The warehouse maintains that atmosphere that plays with the anonymity and luxury of the hidden. A reserved, intimate, and pleasant place, with an excellent gastronomic offer.
More rogue, Nevermore (Cera 17) is a hidden restaurant in the heart of Raval, run by the ineffable Alfonso de la Mota for over four years now, a chef who comes from the art world and then trained at El Bulli. A place where cooking workshops are organized every Tuesday, and which can only be visited for dinner by prior reservation. It has no menu, as Alfonso creates custom menus to suit the needs and budget of his diners. He himself goes to the nearby Boqueria to buy the ingredients, which he prepares in an open kitchen, visible to the diners. A spacious area, exquisitely decorated with a rogue touch using recycled objects, and which, whenever Alfonso is in a good mood, allows for extending the after-dinner conversation until dawn in an atmosphere that evokes the Berlin underground.
Smoking in a legal limbo
At the antipodes of distinguished institutions like those that open this article, another type of private club has also flourished in the city in recent years. These are the cannabis consumer associations, which live in a certain legal limbo, but of which nearly two hundred have opened in the city. Unassuming and without striking signs on their exterior by legal imperative, to join they usually require the recommendation of at least one member, and the signing of bylaws that safeguard the legal responsibility of the promoters against potential legal problems. Although many are precarious premises, others are spacious, modern, and luxuriously decorated, and include incentives such as live musical performances, film screenings, bar service, pool or foosball tables, and video game rooms.
There are also classic ones, that is, for tobacco smokers without further ado. The best is the El Palace Smoking Club, located in the old coal cellar of the hotel of the same name, and annexed to the Blueman Cocktail Bar. In this sumptuous room, the passion for cigars is shared in an intimate, elegant, and exclusive environment for members who love Habanos. Next to the club is the cigar cellar, where members have at their disposal a selection of the best brands and tobacco references, and personal lockers so that those members who wish can store their cigars in optimal conditions. A club that Groucho Marx, a cigar lover and also a member of the Friar's Club in Beverly Hills, a private club for actors in the golden years of Hollywood, might have joined. He decided to cancel his membership, and for that, he sent a telegram that read: "Please accept my resignation. I don't want to belong to a club that accepts people like me as members." It was his particular interpretation of Russell's Paradox, but that's another story.
Add The New Barcelona Post as your preferred Google source for free
Stay informed with the latest news.