Blades Club
Encyclopedia
Blades is a fictional, private club located in Park Street, Mayfair
in central London
in Ian Fleming
's James Bond
novels. Described as the most exclusive club in all of London, it allows gambling, mainly high-stakes card games, but is more celebrated for its gourmet catering. Membership is limited to 200; prospective members must show a net worth
of at least £100,000, in cash or gilt-edged securities, and exhibit appropriate gentlemanly behavior before they can be considered for admission. It is believed to have been based on Boodle's
, a club of which Fleming was a member, though Boodle's itself is mentioned in the novel Moonraker.
Members are required to win or lose at least £500 per year at the tables, or else pay a fine of £250. Only freshly minted coins and notes are paid out as winnings and change. In addition, when members stay at the club overnight, their cash and change are taken away in the morning and replaced with new money. According to Moonraker, no bills are ever presented for meals; these costs are prorated among each week's winners and deducted from their profits. However, The Man with the Golden Gun
contradicts this statement with a passage in which M
returns from lunch at the club, having paid with a £5 note in order to receive new money as change.
Known members of the club have included Sir Hugo Drax (in Moonraker), Auric Goldfinger
(as mentioned by M in Goldfinger) and M. The Chairman of Blades is Lord Basildon. M regularly lunches at Blades and occasionally dines there. James Bond is an occasional guest at the club of his boss.
In the James Bond film Die Another Day
, 007 confronts villain Gustav Graves
in the fencing room of a London private gentlemen's club, though references to this being called (appropriately) Blades were dropped from the final film.
In Frederick Forsyth
's novel The Day of the Jackal
, Blades is mentioned in passing in an obscure cross-reference to Fleming's novels, as the club where the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service plays cards with "some of the men at the Very Top."
Mayfair
Mayfair is an area of central London, within the City of Westminster.-History:Mayfair is named after the annual fortnight-long May Fair that took place on the site that is Shepherd Market today...
in central London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
in Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming
Ian Lancaster Fleming was a British author, journalist and Naval Intelligence Officer.Fleming is best known for creating the fictional British spy James Bond and for a series of twelve novels and nine short stories about the character, one of the biggest-selling series of fictional books of...
's James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
novels. Described as the most exclusive club in all of London, it allows gambling, mainly high-stakes card games, but is more celebrated for its gourmet catering. Membership is limited to 200; prospective members must show a net worth
Net worth
In business, net worth is the total assets minus total outside liabilities of an individual or a company. For a company, this is called shareholders' preference and may be referred to as book value. Net worth is stated as at a particular year in time...
of at least £100,000, in cash or gilt-edged securities, and exhibit appropriate gentlemanly behavior before they can be considered for admission. It is believed to have been based on Boodle's
Boodle's
Boodle's is a London gentlemen's club, founded in 1762, at 49-51 Pall Mall, London by Lord Shelburne the future Marquess of Lansdowne and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the club came to be known after the name of its head waiter Edward Boodle....
, a club of which Fleming was a member, though Boodle's itself is mentioned in the novel Moonraker.
Members are required to win or lose at least £500 per year at the tables, or else pay a fine of £250. Only freshly minted coins and notes are paid out as winnings and change. In addition, when members stay at the club overnight, their cash and change are taken away in the morning and replaced with new money. According to Moonraker, no bills are ever presented for meals; these costs are prorated among each week's winners and deducted from their profits. However, The Man with the Golden Gun
The Man with the Golden Gun (novel)
The Man with the Golden Gun is the twelfth novel of Ian Fleming's James Bond series of books. It was first published by Jonathan Cape in the UK on 1 April 1965, eight months after the author's death. The novel was not as detailed or polished as the others in the series, leading to poor but polite...
contradicts this statement with a passage in which M
M (James Bond)
M is a fictional character in Ian Fleming's James Bond series, as well as the films in the Bond franchise. The head of MI6 and Bond's superior, M has been portrayed by three actors in the official Bond film series: Bernard Lee, Robert Brown and since 1995 by Judi Dench. Background =Ian Fleming...
returns from lunch at the club, having paid with a £5 note in order to receive new money as change.
Known members of the club have included Sir Hugo Drax (in Moonraker), Auric Goldfinger
Auric Goldfinger
Auric Goldfinger is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film and novel Goldfinger. His first name, Auric, is an adjective meaning of gold...
(as mentioned by M in Goldfinger) and M. The Chairman of Blades is Lord Basildon. M regularly lunches at Blades and occasionally dines there. James Bond is an occasional guest at the club of his boss.
In the James Bond film Die Another Day
Die Another Day
Die Another Day is the 20th spy film in the James Bond series, and the fourth and last film to star Pierce Brosnan as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond; it is also the last Bond film of the original timeline with the series being rebooted with Casino Royale...
, 007 confronts villain Gustav Graves
Gustav Graves
Sir Gustav Graves is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the James Bond film Die Another Day, played by Toby Stephens...
in the fencing room of a London private gentlemen's club, though references to this being called (appropriately) Blades were dropped from the final film.
In Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth
Frederick Forsyth, CBE is an English author and occasional political commentator. He is best known for thrillers such as The Day of the Jackal, The Odessa File, The Fourth Protocol, The Dogs of War, The Devil's Alternative, The Fist of God, Icon, The Veteran, Avenger, The Afghan and The Cobra.-...
's novel The Day of the Jackal
The Day of the Jackal
The Day of the Jackal is a thriller novel by English writer Frederick Forsyth, about a professional assassin who is contracted by the OAS, a French terrorist group of the early 1960s, to kill Charles de Gaulle, the President of France....
, Blades is mentioned in passing in an obscure cross-reference to Fleming's novels, as the club where the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service plays cards with "some of the men at the Very Top."