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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Politics
Jim Waterson

Cads’ Corner and Mark Francois holding court: inside the Carlton Club

The Carlton Club has around 1,500 members pledging allegiance to Conservative values.
The Carlton Club has about 1,500 members pledging allegiance to Conservative values. Photograph: Jeffrey Blackler/Alamy

Just inside the grand entrance to the Carlton Club, the private members’ venue in central London where the Conservative MP Christopher Pincher is alleged to have groped two men, is an area known as Cads’ Corner.

The club, which is closely tied to the Conservative party, boasts about this “inviting corner” that features a small cluster of chairs underneath a grand staircase – but its website is somewhat coy about how Cads’ Corner gained its name. As Dr Seth Thévoz, a historian of London’s private members’ clubs, explained: “It’s the spot where male members could stand to stare up the skirts of female guests walking up and down the stairs.”

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