Soho House founder’s new hotel could rebirth central London nightlife
St Clement hotel from Soho House founder Nick Jones feels unusually hedonistic for 2026, with dimly lit bars and restaurants, and new sightlines over the Thames
Blame Nick Jones if you’re sick of hearing about members’ clubs. He invented the modern iteration of them when he founded Soho House in 1995, now with over 250,000 members and nearly 50 ‘Houses’ globally.
Every other restaurant or bar opening in the capital now sells itself as an ‘exclusive members’ club’ and the term has largely lost all meaning. Jones is sick of it, so he has opened a new hotel he claims is aggressively anti-member: staff call it an “inclusive” space, the opposite of his big enterprise, which requires prospective new members to be recommended by a current one before they can apply to gain access to the clubs.
The hotel’s restaurant Cafe Clement was the first part of the hotel to open earlier this summer, and plays by Jones’ new rules. Lauded by critics and poshos alike, it is fairly priced, with mains for around £20, as well as dimly-lit and terribly sexy. If you’re staunchly anti hotel-restaurant, put that rule in the cupboard for this one venue. Whisper this: Cafe Clement could actually bring London’s late-night dining back.
So what about the hotel?
SOHO HOUSE FOUNDER LAUNCHES ST CLEMENT
Jones’ brief was to make it like Claridge’s and Chiltern Firehouse but also casual like Soho House. In design terms, he’s nailed that: Eagle + Hodges’ alluring fitout fulfils the posh hotel trifecta of looking reassuringly expensive; reassuringly beige (for international visitors who like hotels to look the same), and reassuringly quirky (for Londoners who are too cool for hotels that are only beige). In the lobby, Warhol’s polaroids, Luke Alen-Buckley’s sculptures, Yves Klein’s bright blue plexiglass tables and Mark Grotjahn’s abstract works of oil-on-cardboard are compelling ways to inject dynamism.
Everyone at St Clement wants to be the main character – both guests and the staff. Coffee drinkers sitting outside Corner Shop 180, the wine shop and bakery next door to the hotel, are so dressed up it’s as if they’re waiting to be scouted; staff at Cafe Clement are actorly types who have a performatively easygoing vibe familiar from Soho House that is somewhere between cringey and unnerving. One staff member grabbed the other by the shoulders and shook him around while answering a question I had.
THE ROOMS
Beige given interesting textural twists
At Soho Farmhouse, Jones’ Cotswolds property, rooms come equipped with full pantries – bread, butter, eggs, bacon – and there is similar uniqueness, personality and functionality at St Clement. There are weights and yoga mats in an ottoman by the bed, complementary snacks in the mini bar, and a dozen free skincare products in the bathroom. Vibe-wise, there’s a through-line of beige-with-pops-of-colour: a playful, shiny red cupboard is the main statement in my suite. Although, the beige is given intriguing textural twists: my bath mat was approaching the thickness of a small fluffy white dog; the sofa, a sweep of 70s-chic, was made of textured bouclé fabric.
There are teething issues: my bath didn’t work in either room I stayed in, nor did the toilet in the second room (it wouldn’t flush). Positioned on the river at the apex between east and west, the panoramic views are a brilliant spectacle, taking in sightlines from Canary Wharf to Battersea Power Station. Bentley and Netflix have thrown events here in the month since launch, as have The Rolling Stones, whose album release party was so raucous the balcony floor of the penthouse was destroyed (despite their combined age of 244).
THE FOOD & DRINK
Other than Cafe Clement, there is Bobbi’s Bar, with a live pianist and mixologists who shake a great martini. Like Cafe Clement, it is dark and discreet. You enter through an unmarked door and it feels excitingly louche, particularly after 10pm, and particularly on the terrace, which gives the impression of being indoors but is actually al fresco, so you can smoke (a waitress delivers a pack of Vogues when we enquire).
It’s particularly hedonistic, especially for 2026 amid rumours of nightlife’s downfall. The venue is open until 3am and at 11pm crowds gather over tables to wait for them to free up; there’s a queue outside. But the crowd here, and at the hotel in general, bucks against Jones’ suggestion that this is a democratic space. Bobbi’s is rammed with what seem like trust fund teenagers and wealthy 40-plus men. When I ask how average Joes would book a table, I’m told it’s hotel guests only. How else? “Friends of friends”. Again, whisper this – but it sounds rather like a members’ club to me.
Rooms from £800 per night; to book go to stclement.co.uk