The members list of the men-only Garrick Club in London’s West End has remained a closely-guarded secret – until now. King Charles, Richard Moore, the head of MI6, and Simon Case, the cabinet secretary, have been named as members of the club after the Guardian revealed what it called ‘the roll call of (the) British establishment’. But is anyone surprised that the great and the good are signed-up members of the Garrick?

The club’s critics condemn the Garrick for being exclusive, not least because it doesn’t allow women to join. But the endurance of the traditions of the private members’ club is something to celebrate, not condemn.

London’s gentleman’s clubs are thriving

To some outsiders, these clubs are seen as being populated only by elderly gents dozing in leather armchairs. But this is hard to square with reality. My club, the Savile, offers a comfortable haven in a wicked city, a safe space from the horrors of the outside world. It’s a place where I can make new friends from all walks of life, and entertain old ones (including female ones), educate myself at talks and lectures, play snooker, attend films and concerts, enjoy great food and drink, and rest my weary head at the end of the day: and all for under a grand a year. What’s not to like?

The Savile, like the Garrick, maintains a men-only rule, but this doesn’t mean women are excluded: wives, girlfriends, and female guests enjoy all the perks and privileges of members, including the club’s superb cuisine. They can also stay overnight in its elegant bedrooms for a price comparable to a night at a Premier Inn.

Some say that private members clubs should get with the times, but it’s not clear that there is any great demand for them to do so. In the 1990s, my cousin Nick Jones had the idea of founding an unstuffy club catering to the trendy young media types of all sexes thronging Blair’s Britain. Soho House, a former pub where ties, suits and leather armchairs were definitely out, was the result, and the brand rapidly mushroomed around the world from LA to Berlin. Lately, however, it seems to have lost some of its former cool cachet, with members complaining that it has forfeited its exclusivity. There’s no danger of something similar happening at the Savile – and thank goodness for that.

Is there any great demand among women for these clubs to open up their doors? Harriet Harman, the Labour MP who drafted the Equality Act, says politicians and senior civil servants should not be members of clubs that prohibit women from becoming members. But is there really a mass movement among ladies to storm the bastions of male clubland? I’m not convinced: of all the ladies’ clubs founded during clubland’s 19th century heyday, just one – the Womens’ University Club – still survives.

By contrast, London’s gentleman’s clubs are thriving. Becoming a member is no mean feat: selection criteria for joining can be opaque and often relies on a current member approving a new applicant. The Groucho says that one of the ways it selects members is to ask: ‘Does anyone know this person and would you like them sitting next to you at the bar?’ As for the Garrick, it doesn’t even say on its website how to sign up.

Will the exposure of the Garrick’s membership list lead to a flood of departures? That seems unlikely. Shame about being a member does exist: David Cameron famously resigned from the oldest of the country’s clubs, White’s, an all male, mostly white citadel of High Toryism when he became party leader in 2008. Cameron seemingly thought membership of such an elite establishment would not be a good look. But, for the most part, members are proud to belong to these institutions: Robert Buckland, the former justice secretary, said he goes to the Garrick because it’s ‘a place to go to socialise, to relax and to talk about nice things’. I feel much the same about the Savile and I’m proud to be a part of a club where former members include the likes of Yeats, Wells, Kipling and Elgar. Few traditions in English life have been left untouched in the 21st century. Let’s hope that private members’s clubs like the Garrick continue to buck the trend.