Club Dinners
London, through the season. One table, one host, one subject worth an evening. Twelve to twenty people.
Off Nights
Quarterly. The people who move this city: agents, designers, specialists, principals. Larger, louder, and the single best evening for meeting someone you actually needed to meet.
- Home House Studio, 44 Great Cumberland Place, London W1H 7BS
An evening of canapés and drinks with Clarke Willmott, six until ten.
- London
The club's Christmas party ran from six in the evening until three in the morning, through secret zones and rooms the night kept finding.
- London
An evening of poker in London, hosted by Alexandra Llewellyn, who makes the sets by hand.
Country
Weekends at houses in England. Families, children, dogs, and the conversations that only happen on the second evening.
- Dartmoor National Park, UK
A weekend in Dartmoor: a morning on the granite tors, then a woodland walk and the deer park at Bovey Castle.
Journeys
A few a year, abroad. Small groups. Places, houses and people that do not take enquiries.
- Monte Carlo, Monaco
Three days at the Monte Carlo Television Festival, with places for a handful of members.
- Bordeaux, France
Three days in Bordeaux: private chateau visits, tastings, and the making of the wine explained by the people who make it.
- Monaco
Four days at the Monaco Yacht Show, among the yards, the brokers and the boats.
- Munich, Germany
Two days in Munich for Oktoberfest, in the tents, with the bands.
- Lustica Peninsula, Montenegro
Three days at the Lustica Bay festival: art, music, and the sea.
- Tuscany, Italy
A week across Tuscany behind the wheel, a different road and a different table each day.
- Marbella, Spain
Marbella, arranged around the people who already live and work there.
- Tivat, Montenegro
Five days on the Montenegrin coast at Lustica Bay: the architecture, the marina, and the people building it, seen at close range.
Retreats
Two or three days where the subject is you rather than your business. Held properly, in one place, with one person leading it and no agenda circulated to anyone outside the room.
- The Alps, France
Five days in the Alps: workshops in the morning, mountains in the afternoon.
Table
An evening with a mind worth the evening. A philosopher, a scientist, an investor, an artist, a historian. They talk for forty minutes and then it is a conversation, which is the part that matters.
- YDF Interiors, 70 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW3 1ER
Dr Anna Peca, plastic surgeon and regenerative medicine specialist, on hype against what the science actually shows.
- YDF Interiors, 70 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW3 1ER
Jim Hewer, in conversation, on charting a child's path through UK education — placements, tuition and the summer schools worth knowing about.
- Clarke Willmott, 5 St Helen's Place, London EC3A 6AB
A business breakfast with Clarke Willmott, at the firm's City office.
- Dubai Hub, 6 Kensington Church Street, Lancer Square, London W8 4AX
A London roundtable on setting up a family office in Dubai and the DIFC innovation ecosystem, with Alexander Mignone of the DIFC. Held at the Dubai Hub in Kensington.
- YDF Interiors, 70 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW3 1ER
A day on residential and commercial property at YDF's Knightsbridge showroom, with advisers, developers and investors in one room.
- London
An evening with Sergiy Sviatchenko, the Ukrainian-Danish artist, architect and collagist, on his minimalist “less-collage” and where it came from.
- London
Four days in London with Lustica Bay and LBC, on what crosses borders and what does not.
- London
A London forum with Dubai Chambers, across its three divisions: commerce, international, and the digital economy.
Immersions
One host, one thing, properly done. A collection, a cellar, a stable, a studio, a workshop. Two to three hours, no more than a dozen people.
- YDF Interiors, 70 Brompton Road, London
Private presentation — Next Level Experience. 18:00 (London time). Dress code: Black Tie. By invitation only.
- The Peninsula, Belgravia, London
A private midday visit to the Mouawad boutique at The Peninsula, choosing for Christmas.
- YDF Interiors, 70 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge, London SW3 1ER
During Frieze we spent an evening on art and design at YDF Interiors, among works by Yoshitomo Nara, George Condo, Antony Gormley and Damien Hirst.
- Regent's Park, London
Frieze London, walked with an art adviser rather than alone.
- Corsham, Wiltshire
A site visit and tasting at Octavian, the underground cellars where fine wine is kept at exactly the right temperature.
- London
Pascal Mouawad, fourth-generation co-guardian of the house, hosted a private showing of Mouawad's high jewellery.
- London
The club went to the ring for Oleksandr Usyk's fight night.
- Henley-on-Thames, UK
A day on the river for the Royal Regatta, ending at Hidden Garden.
Expeditions
Journeys with something to learn at the end of them. A place, a discipline and a guide who is the best in the world at it.
- The Red Sea coast, Egypt
Eight days on the Red Sea again: sunrise wind, cobalt water, and evenings under a starlit sky.
- Georgia
Four days in Georgia: Georgian founders, Kakheti and the west, Chateau Svanidze and Askaneli.
- The Red Sea coast, Egypt
Eight days on the Red Sea, chasing fresh gusts across the lagoons, a different stretch of coast each morning.
