Soho House on track to open in Brighton this year

Soho House is on track to open a member's club in Brighton this year as it begins to bounce back from the pandemic.

Owner Membership Collective Group (MCG) said it had seen a ‘robust recovery’ in its second quarter driven by ‘pent-up demand’ from members.

The company, which has over 30 sites worldwide, saw revenues more than double to £90m in the three months to July while its membership waiting list grew to over 63,700.

Three new Houses in Rome, Paris and Tel Aviv are due to open this autumn with a Brighton venue "nearing completion" and set to launch in the fourth quarter.

Planning permission for a site on Brighton’s Madeira Drive overlooking the beach was granted in 2015 but updates on the opening have been scarce.

Soho House opened its ninth London member's club, 180 House on the Strand in London, earlier this year. The first Soho Home Studio, a retail homeware store, is due to open in the UK capital in the next three months.

Total membership across MCG brands rose from 119,100 to 127,800 in the second quarter. The company said it made a "strategic decision" to limit intake of new Soho House members during the pandemic despite "very high applications" to ensure social distancing could take place in its sites. New member intakes have now resumed.

Nick Jones, chief executive of MCG, said: “As restrictions have eased across the cities we operate in, we’ve seen a strong rebound in-house revenue growth.

“While the rise of Covid-19 cases creates some near-term uncertainty around the shape of our recovery, the pent-up demand we have seen so far from our members as we have reopened gives us confidence in the medium-term outlook for our business.

“Looking ahead, I’m excited by the new membership experiences we’ll create through our physical pipeline, with the opening of Soho House Tel Aviv and new Soho House sites nearing completion in Paris, Rome and Brighton.”

*Image: Soho House's Maya restaurant at the Hoxton hotel Shoreditch *