The Liguanea Club

A Members Club That Kept Its Lawns and Rented Its Rooms

New Kingston is a grid of banks, towers and traffic, and then a gate opens onto grass. The Liguanea Club was founded in 1910, when this was open country on the plain below the Blue Mountains, and it is one of the oldest private members clubs in the Caribbean. The main building is Georgian in outline with a Greco-Roman facade, and the grounds around it still carry tennis courts, squash courts and old shade trees. Guests are put up inside the club, not beside it, which is the whole point: for a few nights you borrow a piece of Kingston that is normally members only.

Why It Works

Two reasons, and the first is space. Everywhere else in New Kingston you book a room and a lift lobby; here you get lawns, a pool and courts, in the exact spot where the business district is densest. The second is continuity. The club has been running for more than a century, it partners with the national tennis and squash bodies, and the golf field it once owned is now the ground the Pegasus stands on. Staying here puts you inside that story rather than in a room that references it on a wall.

Why This Location

The address is Knutsford Boulevard, Kingston 5, the spine of New Kingston: the banks, the airline offices and the good restaurants are all within a few blocks, and Emancipation Park with its morning walkers is at the end of the street. Uphill lie Devon House, its ice cream queue and the Bob Marley Museum on Hope Road. Downtown, twenty minutes the other way, are the National Gallery, the waterfront and Trench Town. The club also sits on the road out to the Blue Mountains, which is the drive worth making at dawn for coffee country.

Fast Facts

• Price: mid-range, club rates rather than hotel rates

• Vibe: colonial-era clubhouse, quiet lawns, racquet sports

• Rooms: plain and generously sized, spread through the club buildings, family rooms available

• Best For: tennis and squash players, business travellers who want green space, visitors interested in Kingston’s social history

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: the wood-panelled Iguana Bar, still the club’s living room

• Dining: club restaurant and bar on site, breakfast served in the clubhouse

• Amenities: floodlit hardcourt tennis, glass-backed squash courts, gym, swimming pool, table tennis, free private parking, gardens and gazebo

• Attractions: Emancipation Park, Devon House, the Bob Marley Museum, Hope Botanical Gardens, the National Gallery downtown, Blue Mountain coffee estates

Courts, Squash and the Case for Packing Trainers

Sport is not an amenity here, it is the reason the club exists. The tennis courts are hardcourt and lit for evening play, the squash courts are glass-backed, and there is a gym, a pool and table tennis. The club works with Tennis Jamaica and the Jamaica Squash Association, so the standard on court on a weekday evening is higher than a visitor might expect. Anyone who plays should book a court on arrival. Anyone who does not will still take the benefit: a lawn to sit on, in a city that has very little of it.

The Clubhouse, and What Staying Inside It Feels Like

The clubhouse is the character of the place. Wood panelling, high ceilings, the Iguana Bar, a gazebo on the grass, and a membership drawn from Kingston’s lawyers, bankers and parliamentarians drifting through in the evening. The rooms are comfortable and unfussy, in keeping with the house: what carries the stay is the grounds, the history and the address. Breakfast happens in the clubhouse, among people who are there for a committee meeting rather than a holiday.

What to Know Before You Book

This is a working members club, so parts of it are given over to fixtures, tournaments and private functions, and the rhythm of the place follows the members rather than the guests. Check-in is early afternoon, check-out midday. Parking is free and on site, and a car or a trusted driver makes Kingston considerably easier. Book a court when you arrive if you intend to play, and keep an evening free for the bar: that is where the club is at its best.