Soho’s Groucho Club to open branch in Yorkshire

ONE of Soho’s most notorious private members clubs is to open a branch in a West Yorkshire stately home.

The Groucho Club, which has been nicknamed the “home for hellraisers”, will set up shop in Bretton Hall.

The club will be housed in a former arts training college within the grounds of the 500-acre Yorkshire Sculpture Park, which features works by Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth.

Groucho Bretton will have more than 40 bedrooms, as well as areas for members to work, meet and attend events. It is expected to open in late 2026. London members get full access.

The plans are likely to raise eyebrows in the nearby village of West Bretton, which has a population of fewer than 500 people, with no shop or pub but with both a bowling and cricket club. The nearest city, Wakefield, is five miles away.

In a note to members, Ewan Venters, chief executive of Groucho Club owner Artfarm, said the new club “will be underpinned by the Groucho’s uniquely eclectic values, and will, we hope, similarly attract like-minded, culturally engaged individuals contributing to the creative life of the area and beyond.”

The Groucho Club was founded on Dean Street in Soho, central London, in 1985 by a group of publishers including Carmen Callil, Ed Victor and Liz Calder.

It was envisaged as a space for artistically-minded people to meet and socialise. Unlike many other London members’ clubs, it also welcomed women as equals. The Garrick still does not accept women as members. The Groucho’s membership has now grown to roughly 5,000. Stars including Stephen Fry, Cara Delevigne and Harry Styles have been members, while Kate Moss, George Michael and Bill Clinton are among the famous names to have partied there. The club takes its name from Groucho Marx’s iconic quip that he did not want to belong to any club that would accept him as a member.

Al Pacino and Eric Clapton are among the celebrities to have been turned away at the door, while artist Damien Hirst was banned for exposing himself. He put £20,000 behind the bar in 1995 after winning the Turner Prize. The club boasts an art collection of more than 150 pieces, including works by Tracey Emin, Francis Bacon and Gavin Turk.

The Groucho’s £40m sale in 2022 to Artfarm marked the third time the club has changed hands in its 39-year history.

In his note to members, Mr Venters added that the new Bretton branch would have a “life of its own, and its own special personality”.