For Brad Pitt, home is where the “man cave” is. The actor exemplifies the need felt by a growing number of American males to create a space away from women and children, and dedicated to “boys’ toys”, from jukeboxes to gym equipment, motorbikes and beer kegs.

As a father of six, Pitt complains he no longer has the energy for parties. He prefers to invite other fathers, including his fellow star Matt Damon, to play in back rooms stuffed with gadgets in the homes he shares with Angelina Jolie, the American actress, in California, Louisiana and the south of France.

The man cave, defined in the online Urban Dictionary as “a room ... specifically reserved for a male to work [and] play without interruption ... or female influence”, is a world away from the British den, traditionally a garage or garden shed.

Visitors to Pitt’s home in Malibu, California, say he keeps a vintage Wurlitzer jukebox and an array of flatscreen televisions, with cords snaking beneath the wheels of motorbikes, including a Harley-Davidson Bad Boy and a Confederate Hellcat. Buddies sit revving the engines while drinking beer and talking about sport.

Other essentials such as a “kegerator” — a refrigerator designed to chill beer kegs — have taken the cost of completing the “cave” to about $200,000 (£125,000), according to a business associate.

The man cave in Pitt’s 19th-century New Orleans home is more decorous, filled with architectural models and his collection of rock’n’roll records. It is largely off limits to his children, he has told friends, at least until the boys get older.

His friend and fellow actor George Clooney fills his homes in Los Angeles and Italy with similar toys. Clooney apparently says that as a bachelor he has no need of a man cave but lives in “man castles”.

Pitt, 45, is far from alone in needing space for his masculine obsessions. Nicolas Cage, the actor, has a “man sanctuary” filled with rare Superman comics that he refuses to share with his young son Kal-El, while the Hollywood star Johnny Depp, a father of two, keeps guitars in his Parisian cave alongside cases of wine from his vineyard near St Tropez.

Style commentators claim Elvis Presley built the first man cave at Graceland, his home in Memphis, Tennessee, where he ran green carpet up the walls and ceiling of his study and called it the “jungle room”. But the luxury of man caves has recently trickled down to the middle classes.

Over the past two decades the size of new American homes has increased by 15% — and men have been happy to fill the extra space with gadgets. Women who like bigger bathrooms and better kitchens are happy to see the men gather their playthings in one soundproofed room.

Marketing companies say that, like teenagers, many married men aged between 25 and 45 are greedy for gadgets and toys. Unity Marketing, a Pennsylvania-based market research consultancy, has noticed a sharp rise in the sales of “man cave beds”. These have built-in wine coolers and televisions and cost up to $50,000.

Other recession-defying favourites for man caves include humidors, vinyl record turntables connected to powerful sound systems, putting greens,video-game players, bars, skateboards, movie posters and rows of baseball caps.

Kevin Clark, who produces television adverts in Los Angeles, says his wife Suzie is happy to have all his “crap” in one place, including a Harley-Davidson, his father’s sports trophies and a PlayStation.

“Next week, for my 40th birthday, my wife will buy me a 40in flatscreen TV for the man cave. This is my chapel, my place of escape. I need it,” he said.

There is a dark side to man caves, however. Marriage guidance counsellors used to say they helped couples by providing “his-and-her space”. But, according to the Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers, women are now blaming them for “alienation of affection” in divorce cases.

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