At his Academy of Arts and Science, gin and antique magnate Martin Miller offers—Proust-like—a nostalgia-tinged, Edwardian-style fantasy. The official aim of this posh members club is to provide an arena for erudite lectures and impassioned debate, but the setting (robin’s egg blue walls and baroque gold picture frames, dark wooden benches strewn with Turkish cushions, marble busts, ornate candelabars and the like) and the promise of unlimited ‘light refreshments’ (read ‘Miller’s Gin’) are equally impressive.

Speakers have included Germaine Greer and Andrew Motion; topics run from ‘Secrets of the Tarot Revealed’ and ‘The Art of Conversation’ to ‘Fight Game: Inside the (under)World of the Boxing Promoter’ and ‘The Economic Crisis: How We Got Into It, And How To Get Out’. The Academy’s prices match its luxurious aesthetic: a membership costs £195, or £95 for 18 to 25 year olds. The curious can attend their first lecture for £50 but, after that, must visit as the ‘paying friend’ of a member. Lectures cost £30 each for members.