Aman junkies, they were called, the great and the good who back in the 1990s would traverse the globe attempting to pick off the seemingly ever-expanding list of Aman hotels. I attempted to be one myself for a while, and after I’d spent my honeymoon (with my wife, obviously) in Amankila and Amanwana in Bali (the one with tents on the beach where Princess Diana liked to go), spent the next five years trying to go to as many as possible. I didn’t do too badly, but in the end, it came down to cost, and as Aman hotels at the time were the benchmark of chi-chi travel, as well as being mouth-wateringly enticing, they were also eye-wateringly expensive. Maybe I should have embarked upon a career as an investment banker.
The world is different now, and private, silent, sophisticated resorts with a bit of spiritualism and plinky-plonky music thrown in for good measure are ten-a-penny. Ok, maybe not a penny, but you get my drift. The zeitgeist has also changed, as it has a wont to do, as for some time now travellers have gravitated towards something less stuck up, more inclusive, and a bit more fun. Which is why Soho House started opening hotels as well as members’ clubs.
See also: The secrets of London’s private members’ clubs
The history of Soho House
There are now Soho House hotels in almost 20 countries, and after going large with Babington House, back in 1998, the group has now conquered four of the seven continents. Nick Jones opened the first Soho House in Greek Street in 1995, initially in competition with the Groucho Club as a private members’ club with a focus on the media, arts and fashion industries. He then started opening clubs abroad, while also expanding into the British countryside with properties such as Soho Farmhouse in the Cotswolds. There are now 45 properties worldwide. When it went public on the New York Stock Exchange in 2021, there was a lot of gossip about its weak share price and enormous debt. But total revenues in 2023 increased by 16.8 per cent to $1.14bn, while the number of members increased by 20 per cent over the year to 194,000.
Renaissance-ready
The club is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year, and the Soho House nabobs know they need to move up a gear. New CEO Andrew Carnie understands, certainly, which is why he’s charged himself with marshalling his troops and overseeing a reinvention.
In London, the first salvo was the successful opening of Soho Mews House in Mayfair, a direct competitor to 5 Hertford Street and The Arts Club, as well as being specifically aimed at the older member who is tired of sitting next to 27-year-olds on laptops, the kind who spend all day sipping tap water, refusing to vacate their table (it’s also where The London Standard held its Christmas lunch).
Mews House has since become something of a celebrity enclave, and since the forced closure of Chiltern Firehouse recently, is now the default nightspot for visiting Hollywood royalty. The club is so discreet that there is no exterior branding, and unless you know where it is, is almost impossible to find; one celebrity who could find it was Nick Cave, who, on the opening night, wandered into the club as though he was looking for his dog, before playing a selection of what he called his more “upbeat” tunes.
The celebrity adjacency at the Houses can sometimes be intense. The likes of David Beckham, James Corden and Kate Moss can regularly be spied in Little House (the tiny blink-and-you’ll-miss-it hotspot near Hyde Park Corner), while 180 in the Strand can sometimes feel like the green room of the Graham Norton Show. At the opening sleepover at Soho Farmhouse the rumour was that in Nick Grimshaw’s “farm hut”, the complimentary minibar needed replenishing after seven minutes. When I asked him later if this was true, he gave me a seriously old-fashioned look. This was also the night I saw Douglas Booth reluctantly give dancing tips to David Cameron.
It was the only time I’ ve ever seen Brett Easton Ellis, Green Day and Ant and Dec in the same room
I hosted a dinner at the Farmhouse once and more people appeared to want to sit next to Piers Morgan and Alastair Campbell than had wanted to sit next to Meghan Markle at the opening of Soho House in Amsterdam the previous year (a weekend when Soho House founder Nick Jones displayed his somewhat idiosyncratic karaoke skills). A couple of years earlier I hosted a party for Elton John at the Soho House in West Hollywood after one of his concerts, and it was the only time I’ve ever seen Brett Easton Ellis, Green Day and Ant and Dec in the same room. I think this was also the night we ended up in the Chateau Marmont watching Quentin Tarantino screaming at an agent on his mobile, in a scene that wouldn’t have looked out of place in one of his movies.
A blessing on all your houses
I carelessly missed the opening party for the House in Miami, but I gather several TV executives missed the plane home due to the fact they went missing for three days. Apparently, the experience gave them an idea for a reality TV show, although they’d forgotten all about it by the time they got back to London and sobered up. I have, however, visited all the Houses in LA, New York, Brooklyn, Paris, Barcelona, Istanbul (possibly the prettiest of them all), Berlin, Austin and even Canouan (a hop, skip and short boat ride from Mustique). My addiction shows no signs of letting up. I recently stayed at the House in Mexico City, have my eyes on the new Farmhouse opening in a few weeks in Ibiza, and am already planning a trip to Tokyo to coincide with the launch next year of the House there (the yen is cheap at the moment, so I’m buying in bulk).
For years, members would harangue Nick Jones about his plans for a Soho House Care Home (Rest House?), and while this became something of a standing joke (I once suggested he call it DunRavin’), when I mentioned this to Andrew Carnie a few months ago, all I got was a Nick Grimshaw-style, old-fashioned look. Which makes me think it might not be too far from his mind. I’m not so sure I’ll be adding this to my Soho House bucket list, although I admit it would be a good way to celebrate 30 years of membership. See you in Ibiza!
