Hot fifty – Nick Jones

Members’ club supremo Nick Jones has long catered for the creative community at work and play, with venues such as Soho House in London and New York, Electric House in west London and a ‘country hotel’, Babington House near Frome in Somerset.

But last year’s addition to the portfolio of Shoreditch House, atop the Tea Building in fashionable Shoreditch, has made a big impact on creatives in the East End of London. So big, in fact, that in January Jones cemented a £105m deal for the Soho House chain with restaurant chief Richard Carling, owner of Caprice Holdings, whose restaurants include The Ivy, Le Caprice, J Sheeky and Scotts, and Signature Restaurants, the Strada pizza chain and Wentworth golf course.

Under the deal, Carling gains an 80 per cent share in the club chain, with Jones remaining as chief executive with a 20 per cent stake.

Jones’ involvement in Soho House isn’t just about business deals though. He has proved to be a staunch design patron. Ilse Crawford has worked on several ‘houses’, Tom Dixon created the interiors for Shoreditch House, with its rooftop swimming pool and various bars, restaurants and gym, while Gebler Tooth and Michaelis Boyd, which worked on Babington House, collaborated on Electric House.

Among other commissions, NB Studio designs the Soho House members’ magazine and The Design Conspiracy has created branding for the Baby Cow range of children’s bath products produced for Babington House’s Cowshed spa.