The grouchy club: Groucho members’ fury over redesign

FOR decades it has been the place where the capital’s glitterati have gathered, safe in the knowledge that here they won’t be mocked or, worst, ignored.

Stepping through its doors into the Groucho Club’s expansive reception area fellow members were just as likely to bump into the enfants terribles of the art scene as the latest award-winning novelist.

This was, after all, where Damien Hirst reputedly put his £20,000 Turner Prize winnings behind the bar, Bono once serenaded Bill Clinton with a version of “Happy Christmas, Mr President” and Madonna hired the entire venue for a private party.

It is also where Kate Moss photographed.

So when the club’s new owners – who also, quelle horreur, are behind the firm that makes Krispy Kreme doughnuts – unveiled a refurbishment of the club there was outrage.

Gone was the old reception area, described by one member as the “hors d’oeuvre” of the club, providing a “warm and exciting” area for guests to relax and wait for members.

In its place was nothing more than a “little corridor”. This being the Groucho, long-standing members were soon muttering that the alterations had ruined the club’s “feng shui”.

There was also anger at the owner’s announcement that members’ fees would need to rise significantly, in some cases by as much as £100.

But following a threatened rebellion the owners have performed a deft U-turn, announcing the reception will be returned to its original position.

One member of 25 years’ standing complained that the changes had “discombobulated” the club’s “energy” – making it impossible to find people and ruining the possibility of chance encounters. She said: “It became a rabbit warren and it just didn’t flow.”

But, in correspondence sent to members, the club concedes: “[The new reception] was – and I don’t think I’m exaggerating here – despised by most of you ... It is hard to describe the magic that makes the club work in the way it does.”

The response of the membership was predictably true to the spirit of the Groucho. “Good on them for changing the reception back,” said the member.

“But bad on them for putting my f------ fees up.” is often