“I didn’t think places like this still existed” – Robin Ellacott, Lethal White, chapter 9.
As Robin tells Strike, Pratt’s Club is a gentleman’s club, “…very Tory… no women allowed, except as guests of club members at lunch-time.” All male staff members are called George, and when they hire women, they are called Georgina, to “avoid confusion.” This is the location where Strike meets his soon-to-be client, Jasper Chiswell.
Strike gets the Tube to Green Park Station and makes his way to St James’s Street.
As Strike arrives on St James’s Street, he recalls walking down the street to an Italian restaurant ten years previously with Charlotte Campbell.
Strike arrives at Pratt’s club on Park Place and approaches the black door, with its wrought iron balustrade above. He is greeted by a woman he assumes is called Georgina and is led downstairs to a cosy basement. Chiswell arrives shortly and hires Strike to investigate the blackmailing from Geraint Winn and Jimmy Knight. He wishes to obtain dirt on these two as his own ammo.
When we visited Pratt’s ourselves, we knocked on the door and asked the man (probably called George) if we could take some interior photos. We were rudely declined, since he was quite angry about J.K. Rowling not asking permission. “I am the French man in chapter 9. J.K. Rowling did not ask permission!” So, fair warning: Don’t knock on the door of Pratt’s!
Find Pratt’s on Google Maps here: