Hundred Guineas Club

The Hundred Guineas Club in Portland Place, London, catered for the well off with an annual subscription of 100 guineas. It was, by far, the most exclusive gay club of the period (1880s). It provided a place where the upper class gentlemen could take their young soldiers for fun and games, for ‘short term’ sexual encounters. The customers would assume female names. According to biographer Michael Harrison, Prince Albert Victor was a “regular and popular guest”, his assumed name being Victoria, after whom he had been named (his grandmother was Queen Victoria).