By Daphne Bennett
October 2024
Annabel's annual Halloween bash, this year themed as The Ghost of Versailles is a prime example of the growing trend of private members' clubs. These exclusive havens, once the preserve of the privileged few are now more popular than ever, offering a sense of social belonging in our fragmented world. But beware: overexpansion can turn these exclusive sanctuaries into mere social hubs as Soho House's global proliferation has shown. Who needs friends when you can have a membership card, right?
The Halloween Extravaganza
As Halloween descends upon London, Annabel's transformed this year into The Ghost of Versailles celebrating the 400th year of Versailles. Named after Lady Annabel Birley, daughter of the 8th Marquess of Londonderry and wife of the owner Mark Birley, the club was a cultural revelation. The club first opened its doors in 1963 and catered for blue bloods, bankers, pop stars and prime ministers soon becoming a distillation of who was who in socially relevant London.
Annabel's globalisation occured in 2007, shortly before Birley died he sold Annabel’s to Richard Caring, a British business tycoon and key player in London's social scene. Similar to the Sixties, Annabel's remains a symbol of social prominence in London, yet the change of ownership and management has propmpted a evolution, super-seeding its audience from all corners of the globe. Today, Annabel's stands as Caring's crown jewel within his monopoly menagerie, others establishments include: The Ivy, Scott’s, Sexy Fish and Daphne’s.
Later in 2018 Caring completed a £95 million renovation programme with Martin Brudnizki Design Studio overseeing its design. The most crucial change was its expansion from 44 Berkeley Square to an all-day venue at the Grade I listed townhouse No 46. The new garden room has murals by Gary Myatt with tulip chandeliers and Murano sconces. French doors lead into the courtyard, where fruit trees scent the space and the roof retracts. The basement club is lit by brass and glass palm trees, and papered in De Gournay. The ladies’ powder room is a riot of colour, with silk roses on the ceiling, oyster shell-shaped pink onyx basins, pink marble floors and gold swan taps reminiscent of the Ritz in Paris.
A Growing Trend
In recent years, the popularity of private members clubs has been on the rise. Coined and popularised in the 19th century members clubs are a lifelong affliction and anxiety, a pursuit to sit on an ever better, more exclusive set of sofas, upwards and upwards towards the air ever thinner and finer.
Annabel’s is an acception to the Club sandwiches, club ties and club rules association, as this private members club offers an alternative to St James and London’s red-trousered set. In today’s increasingly fragmented culture where one defines one another based off a new sort of tribalism the demand for private members clubs have been high on demand. Simply put, clubs function by carving society into niches, to create a sense of belonging to something larger, thus people want to be part of something these days, even if the only reason they want to be a part of something is because other people aren’t a part of it.
Arguably a failed example illustrating the consequences of rapid expansion can be seen with Soho House. In January 2012, Nick Jones sold 60% of Soho House Group to the US billionaire Ron Burkle in a £250 million deal. At the time, Jones retained a 10% stake in the business and restaurateur Richard Caring retained a 30% stake through his Caprice Holdings firm expanding the total business to 41 houses. However, the fact that there are Soho Houses everywhere now means, in essence, that there are Soho Houses nowhere… in the world of private clubs, at least.
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