GROUCHO TO OPEN UP IN ..WAKEFIELD
Celeb club goes North
THE exclusive Groucho Club, famed for celebrity members, is expanding to Yorkshire.
The private members’ club, based in London’s Soho, is to open a new premises in a former stately home near Wakefield.
Ewan Venters, boss of Groucho owners Artfarm, said the venture made more sense than a move to the US.
He added: “Why would we go to America first? Why wouldn’t we want to go to the north of England?
“I avoided the Cotswolds because it doesn’t represent our membership.”
The Groucho Club opened in 1984 and ballet dancer Wayne Sleep once took Princess Diana to lunch there.
Madonna celebrated her 29th birthday at the club in 1987.
Other guests included former actor couple Sienna Miller and Jude Law, and singer Rita Ora and model pal Cara Delevingne.
But the club once barred artist
Damien Hirst and refused entry to Hollywood actor Al Pacino.
It is claimed the Spice Girls were rejected in their bid to join.
The new club and hotel is expected to open in 2026 at Grade II-listed Bretton Hall, set in the grounds of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, West Yorks.
But locals will enjoy a warmer
welcome as Groucho Bretton will accept non-members.
Mr Venters added: “This is possibly the most exciting venture in the Groucho’s history.
“We have done pop-ups in the past but this will be the first time we have set up a permanent home outside of Soho. It will
have a life of its own, separate from the original Groucho but with a uniquely eclectic style and personality.”
Formerly an art college, Bretton Hall had a heritage that attracted the Groucho owners to the site.
Wakefield Council leader Denise Jeffery said the hall would be entering “a dynamic new phase of its history”.
The Groucho was founded in Soho by a group of mostly female publishers at a time when clubs were male dominated.
The name came from a misquoted Groucho Marx joke about joining a club: “I sent the club a wire stating, ‘Please accept my resignation. I don’t want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member’.”
The Groucho’s official history states: “The name seemed an antidote to all the stuffy gentlemen’s clubs down the road.”