Cotswolds hideaway favoured by Prince Harry and the Clooneys pitches for more punters

[You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Cotswolds hideaway favoured by Prince Harry and the Clooneys pitches for more punters by allowing members to set up camp in the grounds

Talk about pitching for new business. Soho Farmhouse, the £1,650-a-year very exclusive private members’ club set in 120 Oxfordshire acres — whose devotees include George and Amal Clooney and where Prince Harry romanced Meghan Markle on one of their first intimate weekends together — is opening its doors to an army of tent dwellers.

So intent is the club on becoming more inclusive, I can disclose it is allowing members and their guests to camp within its grounds on any night of the year.

‘It will be like Glastonbury without the music,’ jokes a source.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

Soho Farmhouse, the £1,650-a-year very exclusive private members’ club set in 120 Oxfordshire acres — whose devotees include George and Amal Clooney (left) and where Prince Harry romanced Meghan Markle (right) on one of their first intimate weekends together — is opening its doors to an army of tent dwellers

The club — an outpost of the Soho House empire established by Nick Jones, husband of former Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young — has applied to the local council for permission to allow camping all year round, emphasising that it has always been its intention to appeal to those with ‘a smaller budget of between £100 and £200 [per night]’. These are not any old tents, however, but bell tents, each of which is equipped with a double bed and wood-burner. In 2016, the club secured permission to erect up to 15 tents, which would be available to guests on just 63 nights a year.

The experiment, says the club, has proved so successful that even though a further 50 guest rooms were added to Soho Farmhouse in 2018, every tent was taken on every available night.

Aside from wanting to make the tents available throughout the year, the club is also seeking permission to move the position of its five-a-side football pitch, which it admits has been ‘the subject of numerous complaints’ from other guests lolling by the swimming pool or relaxing in what it describes as its ‘sun lawns’.

Perhaps David Beckham, currently self-isolating with wife Victoria at their £6 million home close to the Farmhouse, could be persuaded to bend a ball or two into the top corner.
[You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

+7


The club — an outpost of the Soho House empire established by Nick Jones, husband of former Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young — has applied to the local council for permission to allow camping all year round