We thought the summer party season had peaked on Wednesday with The Spectator’s summer bash, but it turns out there was one on the same day to rival even that. Down in Richmond at Ormeley Lodge, Lady Annabel Goldsmith discreetly threw her glamorous summer party. It was so good that some of The Spectator’s own writers decided to defect. Taki, the magazine’s High Life columnist, was seen chatting to former Tory MP Jonathan Aitken in what was affectionately dubbed “jailbird’s corner” (in the Eighties, Taki spent time in Pentonville on a drugs charge, and, in the Nineties, Aitken was sent down for perjury). “It really was the place to be. Prince William of Wales was there,” claimed a mole at the party. The guest list, like the spread, was extravagant. For decades, Lady Annabel, 89, has hosted an annual bash for the great and good. A major figure in the swinging London of the Sixties, she gave her name to Mayfair club Annabel’s. In previous years she has hosted her party at various Mayfair clubs but this year opted for something closer to home. Ormeley Lodge is the grade II listed Georgian house she bought with her late husband Sir James Goldsmith in the Seventies. We understand that Ellie Goulding, a friend of Lady Annabel’s son Zac, couldn’t make it as she was at a conservationist event.
A touch of stardom at the summer party of centre-Left magazine Prospect last night as Bianca Jagger, former model and wife of Rolling Stone Mick, turned up to mingle with the crowd of economics boffins and journalists. Her environmental work drew her to the party. Former Tory cabinet minister Dominic Grieve said he was glad to be there but didn’t get an invite to the Spectator party yesterday. “They haven’t invited me for, oh, six years. Around the time I came out against Brexit. Which is odd — they once gave me their Parliamentarian of the Year Award,” he said. The Archbishop of Canterbury, also there, told us that he has never made it to a Spectator party but only because he has a full diary. The Archbishop has been leading the charge against the Government’s migration bill in the House of Lords.
Does Soho need another restaurant? Yes, according to fine dining maestros at the Wolseley Hospitality Group. Last night they opened Manzi’s, the new seafood joint between Frith Street and Greek Street. The first guests included actor Billie Piper and Josie Naughton, founder of the Help Refugees charity. Manzi’s opened in partnership with Choose Love, an NGO that advocates for refugees. It is a cause close to the heart of Wolseley group CEO Baton Berisha. Actor Catriona Balfe, activist Jameela Jamil and champion of many causes Lady Amelia Windsor were there.
