Maison Estelle adds to the glut of members’ clubs in Mayfair

Have you heard of Maison Estelle? It’s the latest members’ club in Mayfair, impossible to get into unless you’re friends with one of the members, even if you’re a wheedling journalist who pleads with the PR team looking after it (I know this, because a food-journalist friend has begged them twice). Don’t ask me why Mayfair needs another members’ club. Seems to me there are now more members’ clubs than hedge fund tycoons kicking about Berkeley Square (above) and there were too many of those already. A mole who has been to the place, however, tells me that while it’s astonishingly beautiful inside, there’s a silly, uptight rule that all visitors are required to have a sticker placed over the camera lens on the back of their phone, so they can’t take a single snap of the club or punters. A new level of absurdity for this area, although jolly handy if you’re a politician meeting someone you shouldn’t be, or having an affair.