Morton’s Berkeley Square willkommen bienvenue welcome
Not The Kit Kat Club But Close
Every time I drive past 28 Berkeley Square I get a twinge of nostalgia. A time when champagne was called pop and we guzzled it like it was as innocuous as lemonade. They say no one gets to old and wise without passing through young and stupid, somehow Morton’s club was the kid glove protection where someone always made sure their chauffeur got you safely to your door before you made a complete fool of yourself.
The Grade II listed building at 28 Berkeley Square in Mayfair, situated right next door to the fancy auction house Phillips, was originally the Chancellor of the Exchequer’s private home the 1820s. I didn’t know that until right now. It hasn’t changed much since then. It looks like a regular town house from the outside and until recently it’s all been boarded up with the windows blacked out from the inside. A shadow of its former self.
When we used to go it was the most happening private members club in London, the hottest ticket in town, where the young and beautiful would loiter outside waiting to ask a member to sign them in. They always did. Nobody minded, it was that kind of place, rules were meant to be broken.
And who could ever forget DB? Simon Drummond-Brady himself. So much more than just a maître d', he was the prominent face, club manager, and driving force running the establishment during the era, that was the 1980s and 1990s. It was like the roaring 20s. Decadent, outrageous and totally unforgettable. The stylish, the crazy, the titled, the rich, the poor, personalities not celebrities congregated here. Although I remember meeting the racing driver Rupert Keegan, playboy and a regular here and comedian Jim Davidson one evening. My friend dated him for a while after that mad evening. In a way we were so lucky to have experienced fun and socialising at its height at 28 Berkeley Square.
In 2025 after Covid the squatters moved in. The ex-Michelin-starred restaurant and club once frequented by the likes of Pippa Middleton, Jodie Kidd, Lindsay Lohan, me and my friends has gone through a bit of a down grade.
Very sad that the people inhabiting these once fabulous now derelicts spaces, Gordon Ramsay York and Albany in Camden and San Lorenzos, Italian restaurant in Knightsbridge (and Diana’s favourite restaurant) has suffered similar fates with squatters, have nowhere else to go. The York and Albany got them out with a court order but has not reopened as a restaurant, owner film director Gary Love has it on the market for a guide price of £13 million.
I drove past the other day, the door was open and people were milling about outside, it seemed serendipitous there was a parking space right outside, especially considering all the spaces are now reserved for Lime bikes instead of the Bentleys and Porsches of a bygone time, so I stopped.
I was nosey, curious to see what was going on, if new life was being breathed into the space that held so many memories, the dark cosy booths, the long bar on the right, the little white loo at the back with the floral wallpaper and single rickety hook on the door.
I was tempted to ask for a peek inside to re conjure the excitement of 40 years ago if just for a moment, the way people revisit childhood homes. Morton’s was where I came of age even though I was never member myself.
I discovered that currently, the building at 28 Berkeley Square is acting as a versatile commercial property. It frequently hosts high-profile, temporary brand takeovers and exclusive exhibition experiences.
Most recently, it was occupied by the luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton for an immersive, temporary hotel pop-up, fancy I am sure but it would be hard to ever recreate the late night scene the unique and venerable Simon Drummond Brady managed to cultivate.
It was somewhere worthy of movie story telling magic.
Willkommen bienvenue welcome.
If DB ever returned, it would be the most sought after ticket in London. And not for celebrities especially but for all the old regulars of which I am sure there are many who remember as fondly as I what times were had. If walls could talk, it is a movie.