Soho House to open in Manchester and London's Balham

Soho House has revealed plans to open a site in London’s Balham and its first location in the north of England, in Manchester.

The south London venue will be in a 5,300 sq ft site on Bedford Hill, featuring a bar and Club Cecconi’s restaurant.

“We want to offer members more spaces outside of central London,” said Soho House founder Nick Jones.

Soho House Manchester will open either this year or in early 2023. Speaking at the Northern Restaurant and Bar (NRB) show this week, Jones said it would take over the top three floors of the old Granada Studios building and feature a Club Cecconi’s and a swimming pool.

Motel and diner brand Mollie’s will open its largest site to date and first city centre location on the lower floors of the Granada building. It will feature 140 rooms, a 164-cover restaurant, a lounge bar with live music and an event space for private hire, a workspace and lounge, and an outdoor heated terrace.

Mollie's, which has sites in Oxfordshire and Bristol, was founded by Jones but was spun-off as a separate entity from Soho House in 2020.

Jones said he was nervous about the launch and that the team “really want [Soho House] to work” in Manchester.

He said the venue would be inspired by the “glamour and grit” of Manchester and he hoped 80% of members would be from the area.

The Manchester opening will be the 13th UK Soho House club and the fourth outside London. The company is to launch in Brighton this month and also runs member's clubs in Oxfordshire and Somerset.

At the end of 2021 Soho House had approximately 156,000 members worldwide, an increase of 37,000 on 2020, with a waiting list of 70,000.

Parent company Membership Collective Group held an IPO in New York last year that raised $388m (£295m).

This week it upgraded its growth forecast to include nine new sites worldwide this year, with launches in Copenhagen and Stockholm, among others.