The Grade I-listed Robert Adam townhouse that held Crockfords for forty years is set to reopen in 2027 as a dining-led members’ club, open from breakfast to the early hours.
Crockfords ran a members’ casino in the Robert Adam rooms at 30 Curzon Street from 1983 until it closed in October 2023. In 2027 the Mayfair townhouse is due to open again as Alter Ego, a private members’ club with no gaming. The club means to serve its members from breakfast until the early hours.
Alter Ego says a great club should serve all moods and all occasions, with intuitive service and first-class rooms. It wants a membership united by quality, discretion and mutual respect, where members are known, at ease and “never simply a number”. Each member is to shape the club and make it their own home.
The plans describe a club built on dining, with social spaces and a cultural programme. Membership opens by registered interest. The club’s one other line is in French: “une atmosphère chargée d’anticipation”.
Restoring the Robert Adam rooms
Crockfords closed after its visitors fell away, a decline the pandemic and competition from casinos abroad made worse. Genting UK, which has long been present at the site, then marketed the building for homes and offices. It says the Grade I listing ruled both out, because the principal rooms on the ground and first floors leave too little room to adapt.
The proposals restore the Robert Adam interiors in full, the circular room and the vaulted drawing room among them. Changes inside are to be kept to a minimum, new services are to be fitted out of sight, and the 18th-century front, which stands in the Mayfair Conservation Area, will not be altered. Genting showed the plans to neighbours at two exhibitions inside the house, on 1 and 11 June, ahead of a planning application to Westminster City Council.
The group behind Saint Jacques
The Alter Ego Group runs Saint Jacques in St James’s, a restaurant built around the French idea of la joie de vivre, combining high-quality dining with thoughtful design. It sits at 5 St James’s Street and serves breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a steak tartare made at the table. Genting says the group knows hospitality, design and the restoration of historic buildings, and plans a discreet, carefully run club.
The proposals include a terrace, with controls on its use, and later hours under strict management and acoustic controls, to protect the people who live on the street. Only members will be admitted, which Genting says will keep the house more controlled than a public venue.
Alter Ego, 30 Curzon Street, Mayfair, London W1J 7TN.
Discover more at thealteregoclub.com