No such thing as a free lunch? King of clubs forks out £500 to each member
WHILE Rishi Sunak won plaudits for using taxpayers’ cash to hand out £10-per-head restaurant discounts, London’s beau monde is being offered something altogether more generous.
I can reveal that ‘king of clubs’ Robin Birley has taken the extraordinary step of spending millions of his own money to lure members back to his fashionable Mayfair nightspots.
He is giving every member of 5 Hertford Street and Oswald’s a free meal up to the value of £500 — that’s more than the net weekly salary of the average Briton.
‘Robin thinks the members have been so wonderfully loyal to the club over the past few months that he wants to show just how much he values their support,’ one of his friends tells me.
There are understood to be at least 3,000 members of the two clubs so it could set Birley back more than £1.5million. Members can bring as many guests as they like and, while Sunak’s offer is only for August, Birley’s lasts until Christmas. It’s an astonishing gesture but reflects how London has been devastated by lockdown. Many of the clubs’ members moved to their country homes during the crisis and do not seem to be returning in a hurry. Robin, the son of Lady Annabel Goldsmith and late club owner Mark Birley, opened 5 Hertford Street in 2012 and it soon became London’s most exclusive watering hole.
Based in a labyrinthine townhouse, it’s decorated like a bohemian stately home and members are charged fees of about £2,500 a year. Among the countless famous faces to have visited are George and Amal Clooney and billionaire Bill Gates.
I suspect Birley may secretly hope many of his well-heeled members are too proud to take him up on his offer. But even the rich love a freebie.