The rise and fall of celebrity hotspot The Groucho Club
It was once the venue of choice for the London glitterati but it appears the party is over for famed celebrity haunt The Groucho Club.
The club’s licence has now been suspended by Westminster City Council after a request by the Metropolitan Police.
Neither the police, nor the club itself, have shed any light on the “serious criminal offence” that forced it to close its doors, but it is not the first time the venue has been dogged with claims of illegality.
In its heyday, an upstairs room was apparently nicknamed the Peruvian Procurement Department, such was its reputation for the alleged availability of cocaine.
It is a startling fall from grace for a club once frequented by the likes of Princess Diana, Kate Moss, Harry Styles and even Ant and Dec.
Kate Moss leaving the Groucho Club. Photo by Rotello/Mcp/Shutterstock
The club was founded in 1985, at a time when very few private members’ clubs were open to women (and in fact, The Garrick Club only voted to allow women to become members this year – prior to that, they had to be invited in and accompanied around the building by a man).
A group of publishing heavyweights (Liz Calder from Bloomsbury, Carmen Callil from Virago and literary agents Ed Victor and Michael Sissons) wanted to invent a “new kind of club”, according to the official history of Groucho.
They wanted it to be “a place where the creatives can mingle, unwind, and spark some serious magic, regardless of gender, a club anyone could apply to join based on merit, the antithesis of the stuffy gentlemen’s clubs of the day”.
It would become “the blueprint for the modern members club”.
British television presenting duo Ant & Dec attend a party being held at the Groucho Club in 1996. Pic: Dave Benett/Getty
The club was named after Groucho Marx’s famous claim that he wouldn’t “want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members”.
The group (backed by club owner Tony Mackintosh) bought a slightly dilapidated townhouse on Dean Street for £450,000, raising roughly the same amount again to transform it into the “hottest ticket in town”.
Rod Stewart, Freddie Mercury, and Liam Gallagher were among the famous faces to visit, alongside Keira Knightly and Lily Allen (who was later given a year-long suspension from the club).
Such was the venue’s success at attracting members that a rival Soho club was said to have been launched purely to cater for rejected Groucho applicants.
Nigella Lawson hosted the party for her late husband’s book with Angus Deayton and Lisa Meyer at the Groucho Club. Photo by Alan Davidson/Shutterstock
Stories from inside the club soon became legend
There was the time Bill Clinton walked through the doors one Christmas, only to be serenaded by Bono singing “Happy Birthday Mr President”.
Julie Burchill, a columnist for The Times, wrote in a 2005 article commemorating Groucho’s 20th anniversary: “It seemed symptomatic of the times when my then best friend Toby Young had sex in the toilets with a Lady Diana impersonator.”
Young is on record as responding: “I can’t claim to have been the first person to have had sex in the Groucho Club’s toilets – the truth is we didn’t go all the way – but I’m sure it’s happened on numerous occasions. The irritating thing was that as I emerged, I was spotted.”
Pete Burns and Michael Simpson. Photo by Richard Young/Shutterstock
How did you become a member – and what were the rules?
“Two current members have to write to the committee to propose you,” wrote PR executive James Herring in 2005. “If you’ve been lucky enough to get the nod, you’ll then get a letter saying you’ll be able to join in three years’ time.”
Membership was reportedly £1,500 a year, and being a celebrity was not always a guaranteed entry. The Spice Girls were rejected by the membership committee, while Al Pacino was turned away at reception unrecognised.
To preserve privacy, after 5pm the use of mobile phones was strictly prohibited, unless you were taking a “short discreet” call. No photos or videos were allowed to be taken at any time inside.
The Groucho Book of Rules also states the following: “The wearing of string vests is fully unacceptable and wholly proscribed by Club Rules. There is enough distress in the world already.”
Noel Gallagher and Sara McDonald at the Groucho Club in 2013. Photo by Rotello/Shutterstock
The Prince of Soho
Overseeing the debauchery was front-of-house manager Bernie Katz, who partied with celebrities but was known for his discretion.
Nicknamed the “The Prince of Soho” by Stephen Fry, Katz was the son of notorious south London gangster Brian “Little Legs” Clifford.
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Clifford was a criminal and club owner who was murdered at home while he slept.
Katz, aged 17 at the time his father was shot, would later write in his memoir: “Never one to miss an opportunity, I sashayed over to his wardrobe and navigated my way across the sea of footwear to his black Pierre Cardin alligator skin shoes I’d secretly always had my eye on. Thank God they were in the wardrobe. You see something good always comes out of tragedy.”
A horse drawn hearse at Bernie Katz’s funeral. Photo by James Gourley/Shutterstock
He would become known for his discretion at the club, partying with celebrities and protecting their secrets until the end of his life.
Katz died suddenly, at the age of 49, with Sienna Miller, Noel Fielding and Jude Law turning out for his funeral – the latter giving a eulogy.
Sienna Miller leaving the Groucho Club – she ran out of a side door and was led to the wrong car. Photo by Shutterstock
The club’s downfall
Katz’s retirement (a few short months before his death) was seen by some as the beginning of the end for the club. In 2016, 14 veteran members wrote to general manager Matt Hobbs with complaints including “open drug taking” and arguing the club had lost its “unique feel”.
Hobbs left the club in 2018, a year after it had announced a 40% increase in the membership fee.
The company was bought in 2022 by Artfarm for a reported £40m.
According to The Times, a letter titled “RIP Groucho” circulated among members this summer, which pronounced the club “almost dead”, with complaints including rising costs and the decision to disband the old membership committee.
The Stone Roses bassist Gary “Mani” Mounfield has died at the age of 63, his family has said.
Mani’s brother, Greg, said in a post on Facebook: “It is with the heaviest of hearts that I have to announce the sad passing of my brother.”
“RIP RKID,” he added.
Gary “Mani” Mounfield and his wife Imelda at the world premiere of “The Stone Roses : Made Of Stone” in 2013. Pic: Reuters
Formed in 1983, The Stone Roses were a mainstay of the “Madchester” scene.
Mani joined the band in 1987 and formed part of its classic line-up alongside singer Ian Brown, guitarist John Squire and drummer Alan ‘Reni’ Wren. He remained with the group until their split in 1996.
Mani’s death comes two years after that of his wife, Imelda Mounfield, who was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in November 2020. The couple welcomed twin boys in 2012.
Ian Brown, left, with Mani, right, performing on stage during their 2012 reunion concerts in Manchester. Pic: Reuters
The Stone Roses frontman Brown shared a tribute online, writing: “REST IN PEACE MANi X.”
Oasis singer Liam Gallagher said he was “in total shock and absolutely devastated”, describing the bassist as “my hero”.
“RIP Mani – my heartfelt condolences to his twin boys and all of his family,” wrote the Happy Mondays’ Shaun Ryder, whose bandmate Rowetta added: “Back with your Imelda, Mani. Going to miss you so much. All my love to the boys, the family & all those who knew & loved him.”
The Charlatans frontman, Tim Burgess, shared a photo of himself with Mani, writing alongside it: “I shared this photo a week or so ago on Mani’s birthday.
“It never failed to bring a smile to my face – and that was exactly the same for the man himself.
“One of the absolute best in every way – such a beautiful friend.”
Echo & the Bunnymen vocalist Ian McCulloch said Mani was someone “who I have always loved and always will love, deeply and forever. Like a brother”.
He continued: “I am in shock to be honest. Please tell me I’m just having a bad, bad dream. My thoughts and feelings and Mani. Love to all of his family from me”.
Pic: Robert Marquardt/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock
The “Madchester” bands were known for blending indie with acid house, psychedelia, and pop.
The Stone Roses’ eponymous debut album of 1989 was a huge success, and was named the second greatest album of all time in a “Music of the Millennium” poll conducted by HMV, Channel 4, The Guardian, and Classic FM.
The novel has survived the industrial revolution, radio, television, and the internet. Now it’s facing artificial intelligence – and novelists are worried.
Half (51%) fear that they will be replaced by AI entirely, according to a new survey, even though for the most part they don’t use the technology themselves.
More immediately, 85% say they think their future income will be negatively impacted by AI, and 39% claim their finances have already taken a hit.
Tracy Chevalier, the bestselling author of Girl With A Pearl Earring and The Glassmaker, shares that concern.
“I worry that a book industry driven mainly by profit will be tempted to use AI more and more to generate books,” she said in response to the survey.
“If it is cheaper to produce novels using AI (no advance or royalties to pay to authors, quicker production, retainment of copyright), publishers will almost inevitably choose to publish them.
“And if they are priced cheaper than ‘human made’ books, readers are likely to buy them, the way we buy machine-made jumpers rather than the more expensive hand-knitted ones.”
Chevalier, author of the book Girl With A Pearl Earring, with the painting of the same name. Pic: AP
Why authors are so worried
The University of Cambridge’s Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy asked 258 published novelists and 74 industry insiders how AI is viewed and used in the world of British fiction.
Alongside existential fears about the wholesale replacement of the novel, many authors reported a loss of income from AI, which they attributed to “competition from AI-generated books and the loss of jobs which provide supplementary streams of income, such as copywriting”.
Some respondents reported finding “rip-off AI-generated imitations” of their own books, as well books “written under their name which they haven’t produced”.
Last year, the Authors Guild warned that “the growing access to AI is driving a new surge of low-quality sham ‘books’ on Amazon”, which has limited the number of publications per day on its Kindle self-publishing platform to combat the influx of AI-generated books.
The median income for a novelist is currently £7,000 and many make ends meet by doing related work, such as audiobook narration, copywriting or ghost-writing.
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Could the AI bubble burst?
These tasks, authors feared, were already being supplanted by AI, although little evidence was provided for this claim, which was not possible to verify independently.
Copyright was also a big concern, with 59% of novelists reporting that they knew their work had been used to train AI models.
Of these, 99% said they did not give permission and 100% said they were not remunerated for this use.
Earlier this year, AI firm Anthropic agreed to pay authors $1.5bn (£1.2bn) to settle a lawsuit which claimed the company stole their work.
The judge in the US court case ruled that Anthropic had downloaded more than seven million digital copies of books it “knew had been pirated” and ordered the firm to pay authors compensation.
However, the judge sided with Anthropic over the question of copyright, saying that the AI model was doing something akin to when a human reads a book to inspire new work, rather than simply copying.
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Most novelists – 67% – never used it for creative work, although a few said they found it very useful for speeding up drafting or editing.
One case study featured in the report is Lizbeth Crawford, a novelist in multiple genres, including fantasy and romance. She describes working with AI as a writing partner, using it to spot plot holes and trim adjectives.
“Lizbeth used to write about one novel per year, but now she can do three per year, and her target is five,” notes the author of the report, Dr Clementine Collett.
Is there a role for government?
Despite this, the report’s foreword urges the government to slow down the spread of AI by strengthening copyright law to protect authors and other creatives.
The government has proposed making an exception to UK copyright law for “text and data mining”, which might make authors and other copyright holders opt out to stop their work being used to train AI models.
“That approach prioritises access to data for the world’s technology companies at the cost to the UK’s own creative industries,” writes Professor Gina Neff, executive director of the Minderoo Centre for Technology and Democracy.
“It is both bad economics and a betrayal of the very cultural assets of British soft power.”
A government spokesperson said: “Throughout this process we have, and always will, put the interests of the UK’s citizens and businesses first.
“We’ve always been clear on the need to work with both the creative industries and AI sector to drive AI innovation and ensure robust protections for creators.
“We are bringing together both British and global companies, alongside voices beyond the AI and creative sectors, to ensure we can capture the broadest possible range of expert views as we consider next steps.”
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