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.
Read more from Sky News
Met Police refers itself to watchdog after honeytrap victims’ identities revealed
American football player dies a month after head-on-head collision
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.
Entertainment
Stalker who believed Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas was his aunt avoids jail
A man who stalked Strictly Come Dancing judge Shirley Ballas for six years has avoided jail.
Kyle Shaw, 37, got a 20-month suspended sentence and a lifetime restraining order on contacting Ballas, her mother, niece, and former partner.
Liverpool Crown Court heard that he thought Ballas was his aunt and “began a persistent campaign of contact”.
“He believed, and it’s evident from what he was told by his mother, that her late brother was his father,” said prosecutor Nicola Daley.
The court heard there was no evidence he was wrong, and “limited evidence” he was correct.
Ms Daley said Shaw’s messages had accused Ballas of being to blame for the death of her brother, who took his own life in 2003 aged 44.
He also set up social media accounts in his name.
Shaw had pleaded guilty to stalking the former dancer between August 2017 and November 2023 at a hearing in February.
Incidents included following Ballas’s 86-year-old mother, Audrey Rich, while she was shopping and telling her she was his grandmother.
The court heard in messages to Mrs Rich, Shaw had asked: “Where’s my dad?”
Ballas was so worried for her mother’s safety that she moved her from Merseyside to London.
Kyle Shaw outside court on the day of his sentencing. Pic: PA
In October 2020, Ballas called police after Shaw messaged her and said: “Do you want me to kill myself, Shirley?”
Posts on X included one alongside an image of her home address that warned: “You ruined my life, I’ll ruin yours and everyone’s around you.”
Another referenced a book signing and said: “I can’t wait to meet you for the first time Aunty Shirley. Hopefully I can get an autograph.”
The court was told Ballas’s niece Mary Assall, former partner Daniel Taylor and colleagues from Strictly Come Dancing and ITV’s Loose Women were also sent messages.
‘I know where you live’
On one occasion in late 2023, Shaw called Mr Taylor and told him he knew where the couple lived and described Ballas’s movements.
The court heard the 64-year-old TV star become wary of socialising and stopped using public transport.
Prosecutor Ms Daley said: “She described having sleepless nights worrying about herself and her family’s safety and being particularly distressed when suggestions were made to her that she and her mother were responsible for her brother taking his own life.”
Ballas has been head judge on Strictly Come Dancing since 2017. Pic: PA
Shaw cried and wiped away tears as he was sentenced on Tuesday.
The judge said the stalking stemmed from his mother telling him Ballas’s brother, David Rich, was his biological father.
“I’m satisfied that your motive for this offending was a desire to seek contact with people you genuinely believed were your family,” he said.
“Whether in fact there’s any truth in that belief is difficult, if not impossible, to determine.”
Shaw pictured at court in February. Pic: PA
Read more from Sky News:
Cast of Beatles films revealed
Tractor crashes into houses in Cheshire
Defence lawyer John Weate said Shaw had been told the story by his mother “in his mid to late teens” and had suffered “complex mental health issues” since he was a child.
He added: “He now accepts that Miss Ballas and her family don’t wish to have any contact with him and, importantly, he volunteered the information that he has no intention of contacting them again.”
Shaw, of Whetstone Lane in Birkenhead, also admitted possessing cannabis and was ordered to undertake a rehab programme.
Gary Glitter has been made bankrupt after failing to pay more than £500,000 in damages to a woman he abused when she was 12 years old.
She sued the disgraced singer, whose real name is Paul Gadd, after he was found guilty of attacking her and two other schoolgirls between 1975 and 1980.
Glitter, 80, was jailed for 16 years in 2015 and released in 2023 but was recalled to prison less than six weeks later after breaching his parole conditions.
A judge awarded the woman £508,800, including £381,000 in lost earnings and £7,800 for future therapy and treatment, saying she was subjected to abuse “of the most serious kind”.
The court heard she had not worked for decades due to the trauma of being repeatedly raped and “humiliated” by the singer.
Glitter was jailed for 16 years in 2015. Pic: Met Police/PA
Glitter was made bankrupt last month at the County Court at Torquay and Newton Abbot, in Devon – the county where he is reportedly serving his sentence in Channings Wood prison, in Newton Abbot.
Richard Scorer, head of abuse law at Slater and Gordon, the law firm representing the woman, said: “We confirm that Gadd has been made bankrupt following our client’s application.
“As he has done throughout, Gadd has refused to cooperate with the process and continues to treat his victims with contempt.
“We hope and trust that the parole board will take his behaviour into account in any future parole applications, as it clearly demonstrates that he has never changed, shows no remorse and remains a serious risk to the public.”
Glitter was first jailed for four months in 1999 after he admitted possessing around 4,000 indecent images of children.
He was expelled from Cambodia in 2002, and in March 2006 was convicted of sexually abusing two girls, aged 10 and 11, in Vietnam where he spent two-and-a-half years in prison.
Read more from Sky News:
UK set to be hotter than Greece or Spain
Mother killed by drunk-driver still on road over test delays
His sentence for the 2016 convictions expires in February 2031.
Glitter was automatically released from HMP The Verne, a low-security prison in Portland, Dorset, in February 2023 after serving half of his fixed-term determinate sentence.
But he was back behind bars weeks later after reportedly trying to access the dark web and images of children.
Paul Mescal and Barry Keoghan will play Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr in the upcoming Beatles films – with a Stranger Things star also portraying one of the Fab Four.
The two Irish actors will be joined by London-born performers Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, and Joseph Quinn as George Harrison.
The cast for the Sam Mendes project was revealed at the CinemaCon event in Las Vegas, with all four appearing on stage and taking a bow together in Beatles style.
(L-R) Mescal, Quinn, Keoghan and Dickinson appeared together at the announcement. Pic: Reuters
Mendes is making four interconnected films – one from the perspective of each of the band members – and they are all set to be released “in proximity” to each other in April 2028.
It marks the first time The Beatles and the families of John Lennon and George Harrison have granted full life story and music rights for a scripted film.
Playing McCartney is another big role for 29-year-old Mescal, who recently starred in the Gladiator sequel and was nominated for an Oscar in 2023 for Aftersun.
Barry Keoghan – who also got an Oscar nod for The Banshees of Inisherin – will portray the other surviving Beatles member, Ringo Starr.
Pic: PA
Meanwhile, Stranger Things star Joseph Quinn, who appeared with long hair as Eddie Munson in the fourth series, takes up the role of George Harrison.
Harris Dickinson has the challenge of stepping into the shoes of perhaps the most famous Beatle, John Lennon.
The 28-year-old recently starred in erotic thriller Babygirl with Nicole Kidman and also appeared in satire Triangle of Sadness.
Mendes told the industry audience at CinemaCon there is “still plenty to explore” despite the Beatles’ rise having being well chronicled.
Read more from Sky News:
Prince Andrew accuser has ‘days to live’
NASA astronaut takes some blame for getting stranded
The Oscar-winning British director is known for films including American Beauty, First World War movie 1917, and Bond outings Skyfall and Spectre.
Sony Pictures boss Tom Rothman said the close release of all four films in three years’ time will be “the first bingeable theatrical experience”.
“We are going to dominate the culture that month,” he added.
-
Sports2 years ago‘Storybook stuff’: Inside the night Bryce Harper sent the Phillies to the World Series
-
Sports12 months agoStory injured on diving stop, exits Red Sox game
-
Sports1 year agoGame 1 of WS least-watched in recorded history
-
Sports2 years agoMLB Rank 2023: Ranking baseball’s top 100 players
-
Sports4 years ago
Team Europe easily wins 4th straight Laver Cup
-
Environment2 years agoJapan and South Korea have a lot at stake in a free and open South China Sea
-
Environment2 years agoGame-changing Lectric XPedition launched as affordable electric cargo bike
-
Business3 years agoBank of England’s extraordinary response to government policy is almost unthinkable | Ed Conway