For 125 years the historic gentleman's club in Hove has welcomed a select ensemble of well-heeled members for female-free nights of snooker, cards and drinks at the bar.

But after a controversial vote The Hove Club, in Fourth Avenue, is beginning a new era - by letting in women for the first time.

The club was originally set up in 1882 as "a suitable and agreeable place for gentlemen" and attracted military and business men seeking a haven away from their wives and girlfriends.

Although there has been female groups associated with it for several decades, such as a ladies' bridge club, the fairer sex have, up until now, been denied access to the bar, the reading room and several other parts of the Victorian manor unless escorted by a man. If they wanted a drink after a card game they had to be served in an adjoining room or in the downstairs restaurant.

But as of last week, the club's committee voted to accept women as full members.

Chairman Graham Gordon said: "It is probably the most momentous change we have considered for a number of years and the first step to modernising ourselves.

"It hasn't been welcomed all the way around but personally I felt a change was needed.

"Women weren't allowed in before because it just wasn't part of the ethos. But that ethos of a gentleman's club is gradually being eroded. There's hardly any around any more."

Mr Gordon, who has been a member of the club for nearly 30 years and chairman for three, said one of the factors was the need for increased income from extra members and they had found lots of men were put off from joining because their wives and daughters could not use the facilities.

He said: "This is not so much a revolutionary move as an evolutionary move, which will allow us much more scope in organising social events and keeping up with today's social trends.

"In addition to extending the pool of potential members by admitting women, we believe the many women in the Brighton and Hove area who are leading figures in the local community will enrich the life of the club and its members."