A not-for-profit private members’ club that counted actors Brian Cox and Peter Capaldi amongst its founding members has suddenly closed its doors after facing too many ‘rainy days’ for its charitable model to survive.
The House of St Barnabas on Soho Square in London has been run as a charity for the homeless for over 150 years, but transformed into an exclusive club with big-name fans in 2013.
It prided itself on employing people who had experienced homelessness, training more than 300 people in hospitality while supporting them with finding their feet with a stable and secure home.
Bosses at St Barnabas proclaimed that it was ‘the club that never joined the club’, having balanced exclusivity with paying staff the higher London Living Wage and a business model that they now concede is ‘unsustainable’.
Accounts for the club’s events division, filed this week for the year to March, warned that public transport strikes and the cost of living crisis had posed a risk to the business’ viability.
The House of St Barnabas private members club on the edge of Soho Square in the west end of London
Fee-paying members splashed out £870 a year to dine and lounge in private settings staffed by formerly homeless people supported with training and housing
Peter Capaldi (left) and Brian Cox (right) were founding members of the House of St Barnabas private members’ club when it opened in 2013
Jarvis Cocker on the decks at the House of St Barnabas in 2012, when it was taken over by watch brand Omega during the Olympics. He became a founding member of the private club when it opened a year later
The continuing after-effects of coronavirus, which forced the club to fund and operate its own hospitality services, and a ceiling collapse last year appear to have sounded the death knell.
St Barnabas’ charitable credentials saw it attract big names, including Cox, Capaldi and Pulp musician Jarvis Cocker, as members. Cox was among those to take part in events supporting the venture, reading poems written by those it supported.
Its enviable private art collection includes works by Banksy, Roy Lichtenstein, the Chapman Brothers, Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, while the building’s traditional interior is speckled with traditional Rococo plasterwork.
Membership cost £870 a year with a £350 joining-fee; lifetime membership could be sought for £6,800.
But in a statement published on its website and across social media, the private club acknowledged that it could no longer continue to function. The building itself will continue to be held in trust for charitable purposes.
‘It is with great sadness that we announce that the House of St Barnabas charity and members’ club has begun the process of winding up and is closed with immediate effect,’ the statement read.
‘The challenges that we have faced through the pandemic and subsequent years have eroded our financial reserves.
‘We invested for growth this financial year and tried relentlessly to find ways to make the model work. But the returns did not come quickly enough.
‘Then over the summer we had a forced closure due to a part collapse of the ceiling in our bar, which lost us critical income and momentum.
‘With our costs growing substantially faster than income, our business model is simply not sustainable in the current economic environment, and we have had too many “rainy days” to ride it out.’
Accounts for the charity’s hospitality division, filed earlier this month, show a loss of £229,950 in 2022/23, compared with a £105,119 profit in 2021/22. It donated almost £300,000 to the St Barnabas charity in 2022.
The report had ominously warned: ‘It is not possible to know the full extent or duration of the challenges facing the hospitality sector for the foreseeable future.’
Tim Barnes, a former Conservative Westminster councillor, said that the club’s closure was a ‘sad loss for Soho and homeless causes’.
He wrote on X, formerly Twitter: ‘Have some great memories of events and meetings there – wonderful outside space.
‘They did good work. Hope receivers can find someone who will want to keep it afloat!’
Current Labour councillor Paul Fisher added: ‘Very sad to read this. House of St Barnabas has been such an important part of what Soho is about: opportunity, creativity and fun.’
Geoff Barraclough, cabinet member for planning and economic development on Westminster council, said he had written to the charity’s CEO Rosie Ferguson to offer support but added: ‘[I] fear the closure process may be too far advanced to stop.’
Current and former London councillors, and the city’s night czar Amy Lamé, were among those to mourn the club’s closure
Ed Sheeran performs at The House of St Barnabas in 2011 during the Absolute Radio Christmas Sessions
Amy Lamé, London’s night czar, said: ‘This is such sad news. My heart goes out to Rosie and all the staff.’
The House of St Barnabas has operated as a charitable venture of some description more than 150 years.
It was founded as the House of Charity in the 1860s to support the homeless and vulnerable.
It is thought to have inspired Charles Dickens as he wrote A Tale of Two Cities.
The famed novelist described character Dr Alexandre Manette’s lodgings in London as being ‘in a quiet street-corner not far from Soho-square’.
A thoroughfare one minutes’ walk from the lodgings is named ‘Manette Street’ in honour of the book.
It was run as a women’s hostel until 2006, before being transformed into a social enterprise and, latterly, as a not-for-profit private members’ club, winning a string of celebrity supporters.
Prior to opening as a private club, part of the venue functioned as ‘Omega House’, an exclusive suite sponsored by the watch company Omega during the London 2012 Olympics; later founding member Jarvis Cocker spun discs on its opening night.