A mock-up of the new Soho House Balham
(Picture: Soho House)Soho House is going south of the river: the private members club today announced plans for a new 5,300 sq ft site in Balham, its first site in South London.
The SW12 outpost, its tenth in London, is due to open in early summer and will feature a branch of Cecconi’s restaurant, the classic Mayfair Italian now owned by the group.
The club will be based on Bedford Hill in a building that until last year housed restaurant Foxlow. Soho House has owned the site since 2003 but rented it to other operators.
The new opening in the leafy family hotspot is a far cry from Soho House’s early roots. The elite club is best known as a celebrity hotspot famous for turning away suited bankers from its Instagram-friendly pool in trendy Shoreditch.
In Balham, it will be near estate agents, supermarkets and chicken shops.
A source close to the company said the suburban expansion reflected the fact that many of the original Greek Street members have settled down south in recent years. Other recent new openings including more residential areas like Chiswick.
The Balham site will be the sixth new location opened by Soho House so far this year. Others include Brighton and Nashville, with sites in Copenhagen, Stockholm, West Hollywood, and Mexico City due later in 2022. A club in Manchester is also on the cards.
Parent company Membership Collective Group (MCG) held an IPO in New York last year and set a target of opening 5 to 7 new Soho Houses around the world each year.
Today, it upgraded that forecast, saying it will now open 8 to 10 clubs per year from 2023.
The revised target came as MCG reported its first set of full-year results since going public. Revenue rose 45% to $560 million, boosted by the reopening of its locations as Covid-19 restrictions eased.
Losses rose from $154 million to $188 million.
CEO and founder Nick Jones said 2021 had been “challenging... especially with the emergence of the Omicron COVID variant in December which impacted the business during one of our busiest periods.
“This year has started more promisingly, with February revenues in our Soho Houses and restaurants ahead of 2019 levels and our waitlist exceeding 70,000 for the first time.”
MCG, which owns other membership organizations, signed up 37,000 new members last year to take its total to 155,836 globally. Just over 122,000 of those are Soho House members.
As well as Soho House, the company owns other popular London nightlife spots such as Dean Street Townhouse and The Ned by Bank. Membership Collective Group is planning to open a branch of The Ned in New York later this year.
