THE billboards went up overnight last week. From Shoreditch to Kensington, against a backdrop of millennial pink, they proclaimed ‘The Wing Is Coming’.

A phenomenon in the US, The Wing (the-wing.com) is a private members’ club for women; a co-working space dedicated to women-only networking and helping to further careers through a kind of informal sisterhood. It was the brainchild of thirtysomethings Audrey Gelman (longtime best friend of Lena Dunham) and tech star Lauren Kassan.

Since the club’s launch in New York in 2016, it’s had more than 13,000 applications for just a few thousand spaces across its four clubs (three in New York and the newest outpost, which opens today in Georgetown, Washington DC), and in January the waiting list to join was 8,000 strong. But it has also been investigated by the New York City Commission on Human Rights for possible discrimination violations, prompting social media support via #IStandWithTheWing.

I don’t really care if men moan that these small clubs are ‘sexist’. The whole world is a men’s club — Wing co-founder Audrey Gellman

Nonetheless, that hasn’t stopped it from coming to the UK — it’s due to open here at the end of this year. And The Wing is not the only women-only members’ club to open on these shores, but it’s probably the most famous (and most expensive, at $215, or £150, a month). Events include talks by Hillary Clinton and ex-Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor Tina Brown. Celebrities, politicians and media figures (uber blogger Tavi Gevinson, Glossier founder Emily Weiss, activist Chelsea Manning and transgender model Hari Nef) are all regulars.

So where did the idea come from?

‘In 2016, I was never chained to a desk, I was nomadic, running around from meeting to meeting,’ says Gelman. ‘I really had a need for a flexible space to use as a base for the different things in my day.

‘I don’t really care if men moan that these small clubs are “sexist”. The whole world is a men’s club. It’s important for women to be able to carve out their own space, as men have done for centuries and still continue to do.

‘The Wing is so much more than just people turning up, plugging in their phones or switching on their computers and working on their own things. Our spaces feel like a respite from the world. Events such as the Weinstein scandal and #MeToo has really reinforced the need for places like this.’

It’s a need also being filled by clubs such as The Sorority (thesorority.org) in London’s Farringdon (Katie Derham, Gurinder Chadha and international royalty are among its members), the Grace Belgravia (gracebelgravia.com) and the mega successful AllBright Club (theallbright.com), launched last month in Fitzrovia, by Debbie Wosskow and Anna Jones.

‘It’s named after Madeleine Albright [the first female US Secretary Of State] because one of her quotes really inspired us,’ Wosskow tells me. ‘“There is a special place in hell for women who don’t help each other.” Those words really resonate with us.’

The AllBright costs members £50 per month and counts Naomie Harris, Ruth Wilson, Martha Lane Fox and campaigner Sarah Brown among its number. As its waiting list is hundreds of women strong, Wosskow and Jones are already planning a second, bigger premises in London to cope with demand and are in discussions about opening other clubs in cities such as Manchester and Birmingham.

From the art on the walls to the hand wash in the bathroom, the AllBright champions female talent and female-led businesses. Beth Greenacre (who curated David Bowie’s art collection) selected pieces by notable British female artists for the club. And as well as places to hold meetings, work stations, a blow-dry bar, yoga studio and a bar and kitchen on the premises, there will be a calendar of social events, talks, exhibitions, debates and networking meet-ups.

So why open the AllBright now? Wosskow refers to issues such as sex discrimination, under-representation of women in senior positions, the gender pay gap and a 2016 report by the TUC that showed that more than half of all British women have been harassed at work as being reasons why spaces like hers are needed.

Thirty-year-old Layla Rivelino agrees. She and business partner Andre Sinclair, 29, opened the women-only London workspace We Heart Mondays (weheartmondays.com) last November. With a background in events and social media, Rivelino wanted to create an affordable space (monthly membership starts from £25) for the people she most enjoyed working with throughout her career — women.

The club now has 126 members, who, like Rivelino, believe that single-sex working environments are more productive and have a better atmosphere.

‘Women who come into our space feel more comfortable,’ she says. ‘They know things that can occur within a mixed office won’t occur here. The idea of having a “safe space” has become a talking point only recently but been needed for such a long time.’