On Internet Business

Top private members clubs in London for entrepreneurs

Posted by Michael under Entrepreneur Resources

If you want to work, meet friends or business contacts and network in London there are more than a few private members clubs dedicated to creating a great working, meeting and networking environment. But how do you decide which is the right one for you?

One Alfred Place describes itself as the place for those who are based outside London to do business. There’s a member’s noticeboard that gives information about events and some opportunity for networking, but this is definitely a business environment, a kind of top-notch, turbo-charged temporary office, not a social club per se. It’s assumed that members will be visiting One Alfred Place around 100 times a year, so if you’re in town a couple of times a week and would value high quality meeting and working space, this could be the club for you.

1-2 Alfred Place
London
WC1E 7EB

Benefits

• There’s a full business support service from PA support to meeting rooms and dedicated work stations. Those PAs do everything that your own PA would do, right the way through to providing spare reading glasses if you’ve forgotten your own.
• Free lockers for members to store their kit so they can travel freely around London.
• Free laptops on loan so you don’t have to bring yours to town.
• A range of meeting rooms from the cosy to the formal, plus a bar and restaurant.

Membership costs

• Full membership option – within 100 miles of One Alfred Place – £1275 a year with a £150 one-off joining fee.
• Full membership option for those living over 100 miles from the club – £850 per year with a £150 joining fee.

 Adam Street is an organisational centre – it boasts club and offices combined to support  freelancers and entrepreneurs. It’s both valued as office support to the small business person and as a comfortable venue in which to spend time between meetings. It’s very focused and comfortable and the times I’ve visited it’s had a lot of European business folk hot-desking – if that’s a key market for you, then this club could be a real investment.

9 Adam Street
The Strand
London
WC2N 6AA

Benefits

• Offices – ranging from 1 to 22 desks on good monthly terms with full business support services and you can opt to have a virtual office service – with your own telephone number, fax line and the use of Adam Street postal address
• Access to professional concierge service that provides anything a busy entrepreneur could desire – from chimney sweeps to flowers for a forgotten anniversary to fresh shirts for a unplanned week in town.
• Bar and restaurant, meeting rooms and evening talks as well as regular speed-networking and speed-funding events.

Membership costs
 
Adam Street charges a one-off joining fee of £195 for all members and does not provide any form of corporate membership – it’s focused on the individual

• Annual membership £495 for town members
• £395 if you live outside the M25
• £295 if you live overseas or under 26.

 
Perhaps one of the most interesting new developments in the past few months is Hub Kings Cross. With a focus on supporting ethical entrepreneurs and a strong list of backers and supporters from John Bird (Founder, Big Issue) to Tim Smit (Eden Project) to Alain de Botton (philosopher and author) this new networking/thinking/business generating club is likely to become the perfect haunt for those who are focused on ethics, environment and corporate responsibility.

• Annual Membership £400 / £300 * or Monthly Membership £40 / £30 * 20 hours per month
• Worklite Monthly £120 / £100 * 45 hours per month, Virtual Hub (registered post-box)
• Work+Monthly £170 / £150 * 60 hours per month, Virtual Hub (registered post-box), complimentary tea and coffee
• Unlimited Monthly £480 / £400 * Unlimited hours, Virtual Hub, personal storage, phone-line, complimentary tea and coffee

Starred prices are available for those working in start-up (non VAT registered) companies.

Benefits

One key benefit of this club is the Hub Passport – it gives members access to other Hubs in major world cities which means that you can do business across national boundaries. Hub Kings Cross also offers a range of socially and environmentally friendly benefits such as complimentary membership of Street Car, which usually costs £59 and a free three month subscription to Social Enterprise Magazine. 

Also on offer

• Reduced price services, including insurance
• Discounts on room hire and event organisation at the Hub
• Complimentary tickets to events in the global Hub network

The Institute of Directors is the club that most often features on news programmes – and it’s a high value club for those to whom formal business relationships really matter. The elegant club building on Pall Mall gives you some idea what to expect inside – many silver-haired business leaders conducting negotiations in the bars or the restaurant. It’s not a place for kicking back and enjoying yourself and it can be quite daunting to find your way around – it’s not unknown for people who’ve been members for several years to still feel isolated and unknown in this very exclusive environment, so it’s probably not the best venue for entrepreneurs unless you already know a member who can mentor you and introduce you around, as those little circles doing business can be difficult to break into.

Benefits

• Free business tax and legal advice and company credit reports – to help you protect your company credit rating and improve your credit score.
• The IoD Business Centre provides 32 meeting rooms.
• eNews monthly – newly published IoD research and commentary and factsheets.
• Regional and national events – over fifty a month.
• Professional training and director development.
• Lobbying for your business – the IoD represents its members in a range of governmental and non-governmental forums.
      
There’s also a complicated system of fees – on top of the annual membership fee, members pay an election fee which drops according to the number of years that you’re a member. So in your first year, you’ll pay £205 election fee and £307 membership fee. In your second year, £205 election fee and the same membership fee, and in your third year £100 election fee and £307 membership fee. By your fifth year you pay no election fee at all.

 

 
 The Hospital Club describes itself as the only club designed specifically for the creative industries. Offering facilities such as an online network, an art gallery and both recording and HD TV studio, this is definitely the place for creative types. From international DJs offering mash-ups through to creative residencies for ‘pure’ artists, it’s a venue that challenges and pushes the boundaries of what a business club can be.

24 Endell Steet
London
WC2H 9HQ
 
Benefits

As well as the studios, the flower cellars (which are a hireable venue for parties), the gallery and bar, there’s a members’ restaurant and a cinema.
On a monthly basis there are book clubs, writer’s salons, comedy events, music sessions and Creative Capital – a series of talks and provocative Q&A sessions with leading thinkers and creators. It can be a bit ‘lovie’ but try out all the facilities before deciding – if some areas seem chummy and not for you, others are often more welcoming and comfortable.

• Joining fee £150 followed by an annual fee of £550 per annum
• Out-of-town membership (outside M25) of £450 with the same joining fee
• Reduced rate of £300 plus joining fee for under thirties
 
Century Club

61 Shaftesbury Avenue
Soho
W1D 6LG

Based in Soho the Century Club is another club for ‘creatives’ with a membership largely comprised film, theatre, media and music types.  With bars, restaurant, games room, a multimedia events room available for private hire and the fourth floor ‘secret’ (which is actually a very nice roof terrace) you might bump into Madonna here and Jennifer Aniston has been know to frequent the place. It’s not a venue for those with limited mobility – it’s called the ‘century’ because there are a hundred steps in the four-story staircase! Not a business venue, but if you’re in the entertainment industry, this is a shaker and mover club that could benefit you. And this is a love or hate club that generates intense hatred or loyalty in those who visit it, so definitely book a tour before parting with your membership fee!

There is a one off registration fee of £100

Out of Town Membership: £400 per year.
Overseas Membership: £360 per year.
Under 30s Membership: £500.
Under 25s Membership: £225 per year.

The Ivy Club
1-5 West Street
London
WC2H 9NQ

This one’s by invitation only – so you need to find a member to get in. There’s a good piano bar, a restaurant (which doesn’t compete with the genuine ‘Ivy’ below it, but is still pretty good) and perhaps the best ‘smoker’s corner’ in London – it’s outdoors but golly, it’s gorgeous. I have heard that there have been musical serenades for the smokers during the summer, with violinists from the Royal Academy of Music. Those seen leaving The Ivy Club include Kate Moss and Kevin Spacey, so that gives you some idea who’s inside – but they aren’t working because (a) they don’t need to and (b) mobile phones and laptops are banned.

Benefits:

The cream of the social crop are to be found here.

Costs of membership:

Who knows? If you need to ask you probably can’t afford and as it’s by invitation only you dont need to ask.

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