CLUBS ARE THE NEW CATCH-UPS
Organised fun is cool again (honestly)
Words
ED CUMMING
In 2019, Rosie Viva, a 25-year-old with a day job in events, started a supper club. She gathered a dozen people, mostly friends and family. A chef cooked, there were interesting wines, people met and mingled. Since then she has done a dozen more, always following a similar formula. She doesn’t make any profit, but the clubs scratch an itch.
“They are always really special,” she says. “It’s just about all being together, around something that doesn’t revolve around money.” She didn't stop there. Her appetite for clubs whetted, last February Viva started a running club, too, inviting anyone who wanted to turn up and run with her around London, in exchange making a small donation to a mental health charity if they could.
“I had moved in on my own after a breakup last year and wanted to meet new people,” she says. “But I feel more comfortable meeting people outside of situations with alcohol in them. With running, you know there’s a start and a finish. And you know people your age will turn up who you already have something in common with. It felt really safe."
“I’m leaving my comfort zone and I always sort of dread the day when it comes around,” she adds. “But when I come away there’s a real sense of achievement.” The running club was a hit, too. So she then launched a film club, with a few short screenings and discussions. Finally, in November, Viva started a book club, beginning with Sally Rooney’s Intermezzo.
“I struggle with concentration but I always work well to a deadline,” she explains. “So at first the book club was just a way of holding me to finishing the book. It was quite a selfish thing. For the first one barely anyone showed up, but that didn’t matter. If anything, it made it more fun.” Another bonus, she adds, is that there is no obligation to linger afterwards. “It’s a hard out at 8:30. You don’t owe them anything, but you’ve been exposed to other people.”
While not everyone has the energy to start four clubs of their own, more and more of us are finding – or re-finding – the joy in gathering around a hobby. Meetup, a platform that helps people to find and organise meetings, reported that book club attendance is up 14% year on year. From pottery to padel to gardening to bouldering to Dungeons & Dragons, clubs are back. Statistics show that while we’re still going to the pub, a lot of us are drinking less alcohol: a club provides a different kind of focal point.
Beyond that, they're a way of leaving the other preoccupations at the door. At a club you do not need to worry about the ‘grindset', or what you look like, or how many likes your post will get online. In many of these clubs, using your phone is discouraged or impossible. You can put it away and instead concentrate on the bowl, or the film, or discussing the best way to deal with Japanese knotweed.
Emma Underwood, a restaurant manager, recently joined a canoeing club for precisely this sense of escape, as well as the chance to reconnect with her childhood. "I wanted a different workout to regular yoga," she explains. "I grew up kayaking in North Wales. As exercise, it's especially good for your core and arms. And it's just great to be doing something that's stimulating in a different way. It really wakes you up and makes you aware of your body in a way you don't experience day to day. Plus, the other members are all very supportive. They all go to the pub afterwards."
In an age when there are more excuses to stay in than go out, a club is a chance to break away from being chronically online and connect with others seeking the same escape. The club boom may have only just begun.
Ed Cumming is a London-based writer and editor, currently at The Telegraph.