Soho House has turned part of the BBC’s Television Centre in west London into its nineteenth private members’ club, which features a rooftop pool overlooking White City.
Purpose-built by architect Graham Dawbarn in 1960 as the headquarters for the BBC, which relocated in 2013, the building now houses members’ facilities inside the central ring of the Grade II-listed building.
Along with 45 bedrooms for overnight stays, there are two floors of lounges along with a rooftop pool and bar, private cinema, and a 2,230-square-metre gym.
For White City House, Soho House’s design director Linda Boronkay combined the club’s signature interiors style, featuring dark velvet seats and brass-accented bars, with pieces that allude to the building’s prime time during the 60s and 70s.
Soho House bills itself as a club for creative types, drawing its membership from those in the arts and media and offering a discount to those under the age of 27. The first clubhouse opened in Soho in 1995, and there are now 20 around the world, with a Brooklyn outpost also opening this spring.
A tenth floor open-air swimming pool is surrounded by sun loungers and parasols covered in a jaunty 60s style palm print.
Custom pale terrazzo tiles run from outside the pool to the curving indoor bar, which has been given a beach house vibe thanks to the white gloss painted timber ceilings and wooden tables and chairs.
Down a spiralling dark wood staircase to the ninth floor are more members’ spaces. With wrap-around glazing and a glass ceiling, the Horizon Terrace leads out from the main bar and is stuffed full of ferns and other foliage.
The bar itself is upholstered in plush plum-coloured velvet studded with brass buttons, with more polished metal used for the industrial-style drinks racks. Again, the floor is custom terrazzo.
An open kitchen in House Canteen serves an “East meets West” menu, fusing Peking duck and bao buns with the club’s standard plant-based fare, at mid-century imitation tables and chairs.
Large windows give views over the city, and the fluted-oak wall panels, with their distinctly retro vibe, were modelled on the original panels that lined the reception room when the BBC occupied the building. An art collection of works honouring English artist and BBC presenter Tony Hart permanently occupies one wall.
In the games room, where members can work at the tables during the day, a bespoke rug was woven to look like the BBC test card. Fabrics for the furnishings were made in collaboration with Tibor, a textile designer that made patterns for the BBC.
On the second and third floor of the Grade II-listed Helios building are the 45 hotel rooms, decked out with more mid-century furniture in the form of terrazzo tables, wardrobes with fluted timber panels and modernist style wooden minibars.
Lamps originally designed by American designer George Nelson light up the rooms, and the tiles are another custom patten taken from original BBC designs.
In the basement of the Helios sits the House Gym, the largest Soho House gym offering to date, complete with high end equipment and a 17-metre swimming pool. Timber panels and dark grey tiles feature in the exercise areas and the changing rooms.
At the ground floor The Allis lounge and bar is open to the public, with moulded brass bars set in parquet floors and fluted timber walls. The two-screen Electric Cinema has dark blue carpets and velvet walls’ patterned in a 60s geometric print.
Last year Soho House converted a former bank in the City of London designed in 1924 by British architect Edwin “Ned” Lutyens into a hotel an dining venue, christened The Ned.
Lead interior designer Alice Lund described the intended style for The Ned as “very opulent, very beautiful, but also slightly faded around the edges.”
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