Post by chris & the giant peach on Jan 19, 2012 13:28:23 GMT
...one of Prince Harry's drinking pals...
I like to get out of London on Friday evenings and head for my mother’s house in Gloucestershire. I’m usually feeling pretty jaded as Public, my nightclub in Chelsea [currently subject to a licensing review following complaints about noise and rowdy behaviour], is busy on Thursdays and a lot of my friends tend to go along. My mother has a sofa in the kitchen, so as soon as I arrive I’ll flop on to that with the dogs while she natters away.
I’m quite a dog snob; we’ve a lurcher called Suki and two terriers and I’m always getting into trouble for telling the terriers to go away. I find them too licky and in your face and prefer to talk to Suki, who has such a dry sense of humour.
We’ll have something easy like shepherd’s pie for supper, and I’ll try not to go to bed too late because if this is really my perfect weekend I’ll be hunting with the Beaufort the following morning – I go as much as I can during the season. I don’t have a girlfriend at the moment, but preferably I’ll be down there with a girl who is into hunting, too. It’s quite difficult to find someone who likes hanging out in a London nightclub during the week and hunting all day on Saturday… but I’m looking.
When I left Newcastle University with a land management degree I wanted to own a pub, but then I met Piers Adam [the owner, with Guy Ritchie, of the Punch Bowl in Mayfair], who was setting up Mahiki nightclub. He was looking for someone in his twenties to come on board and I thought it sounded a fun thing to do.
Public, which is a New York-style nightclub in a former antiques warehouse in Chelsea, is my first solo venture. Perhaps in my thirties and forties I’ll progress on to hotels and restaurants. My hero – not that I’ve ever met him – is Nick Jones, who set up Shoreditch House and Soho House. I love the attention to detail he puts in to everything.
Luckily it’s not a mega early start for hunting; the Beaufort meets at 11am. I’ll get up at about nine and, instead of my usual breakfast of fruit smoothie or apple juice, my mother will make me a full English with fried bread, sausages and egg because I’m not going to eat again all day.
Afterwards, I’ll get into my riding kit, which takes a bit of time. I have quite a cool stock pin with a fox on it, which was given to me by my grandfather, and a special pair of long browntop boots, which my godfather, the racehorse trainer, Nick Gasley, gave me. My mother drives the horsebox to the meet where I’ll invariably bump in to at least 15 friends I’ve grown up with.
My horse Tilly is quite a small bay mare who likes jumping hedges. We’ll finish when it gets dark; the best is when we end up in Badminton Park, cantering up the avenue of trees from Worcester Lodge. When it’s just you and your horse approaching Badminton House in the dark, it feels like you’ve gone back in time.
My mother will pick me up and we’ll go back home and put Tilly to bed. I’ll then have a massive cup of tea and something to eat, such as kedgeree, followed by a very long bath. I don’t ride all week so when I suddenly jump on a horse for five hours I’m pretty stiff afterwards.
On Saturday night I’ll meet my hunting friends for dinner in one of two local pubs; the Cat & Custard Pot in Shipton Moyne or the Vine Tree in Norton. We’ll have stupid banter about who fell off and who jumped what, and in an ideal world there’ll be some kind of jig band so we can dance around with the locals until closing.
I prefer not to be in London at weekends but I did stick around after the Royal wedding last month. The whole country seemed to find it a pretty special and wonderful occasion but I was lucky enough to be a guest. It was a huge privilege actually to be inside the Abbey – one of those once-in-a-lifetime things.
Outside the hunting season I tend to go racing at weekends. My friend Jake Warren and I run a members’ bar on the Saturday of Royal Ascot called The Birdcage for the 18-35 age group. It’s in the Royal Enclosure garden near Whites and the Cavalry Club, and was so packed last year that this time we’ve hired a DJ and will have a bit of a party in the evening.
Ascot sums up everything I love about the English; who else would bother to get into tails and top hats in the heat of the day in the middle of summer?
I’ve never won on a horse there but I did have a punt on my friend Sam Waley-Cohen at the Cheltenham Gold Cup earlier this year, which turned out to be a bit of a money-spinner when he won on Long Run. I then backed him each way at the Grand National and won some more when he finished second.
I like to keep Sunday mornings relaxed. I’ll be up about 10.30am and read The Week on the sofa with the lurcher beside me. For lunch it has to be a roast; either at my father’s house in Dorset – my parents are separated – or at my mother’s, then I’ll head back to London at about 4pm to miss the traffic.
When I part-owned Whisky Mist nightclub in Mayfair I used to go out on Sunday nights… and it doesn’t set you up well for the next week. I prefer to go to the cinema near my flat in Bayswater and eat sweet popcorn and one of those rank hot dogs.
I do get a bit of the Sunday evening blues but I’d feel a lot worse if I had to worry about getting into a suit to go into the City the next day and having a boss on my back. I’m lucky that I run my own business and I love doing what I do.
How the other half live eh? And incidentally his nightclub in Chelsea and exclusive to the 'hooray Henry's' was shut down because nearby residents complained about anti social behaviour, vandalism, sex acts on the street, and rowdy 'hooliganism'! Kate Middleton and Princess Anne's daughters were regulars.
Cue that Python sketch...upper class twits.
I like to get out of London on Friday evenings and head for my mother’s house in Gloucestershire. I’m usually feeling pretty jaded as Public, my nightclub in Chelsea [currently subject to a licensing review following complaints about noise and rowdy behaviour], is busy on Thursdays and a lot of my friends tend to go along. My mother has a sofa in the kitchen, so as soon as I arrive I’ll flop on to that with the dogs while she natters away.
I’m quite a dog snob; we’ve a lurcher called Suki and two terriers and I’m always getting into trouble for telling the terriers to go away. I find them too licky and in your face and prefer to talk to Suki, who has such a dry sense of humour.
We’ll have something easy like shepherd’s pie for supper, and I’ll try not to go to bed too late because if this is really my perfect weekend I’ll be hunting with the Beaufort the following morning – I go as much as I can during the season. I don’t have a girlfriend at the moment, but preferably I’ll be down there with a girl who is into hunting, too. It’s quite difficult to find someone who likes hanging out in a London nightclub during the week and hunting all day on Saturday… but I’m looking.
When I left Newcastle University with a land management degree I wanted to own a pub, but then I met Piers Adam [the owner, with Guy Ritchie, of the Punch Bowl in Mayfair], who was setting up Mahiki nightclub. He was looking for someone in his twenties to come on board and I thought it sounded a fun thing to do.
Public, which is a New York-style nightclub in a former antiques warehouse in Chelsea, is my first solo venture. Perhaps in my thirties and forties I’ll progress on to hotels and restaurants. My hero – not that I’ve ever met him – is Nick Jones, who set up Shoreditch House and Soho House. I love the attention to detail he puts in to everything.
Luckily it’s not a mega early start for hunting; the Beaufort meets at 11am. I’ll get up at about nine and, instead of my usual breakfast of fruit smoothie or apple juice, my mother will make me a full English with fried bread, sausages and egg because I’m not going to eat again all day.
Afterwards, I’ll get into my riding kit, which takes a bit of time. I have quite a cool stock pin with a fox on it, which was given to me by my grandfather, and a special pair of long browntop boots, which my godfather, the racehorse trainer, Nick Gasley, gave me. My mother drives the horsebox to the meet where I’ll invariably bump in to at least 15 friends I’ve grown up with.
My horse Tilly is quite a small bay mare who likes jumping hedges. We’ll finish when it gets dark; the best is when we end up in Badminton Park, cantering up the avenue of trees from Worcester Lodge. When it’s just you and your horse approaching Badminton House in the dark, it feels like you’ve gone back in time.
My mother will pick me up and we’ll go back home and put Tilly to bed. I’ll then have a massive cup of tea and something to eat, such as kedgeree, followed by a very long bath. I don’t ride all week so when I suddenly jump on a horse for five hours I’m pretty stiff afterwards.
On Saturday night I’ll meet my hunting friends for dinner in one of two local pubs; the Cat & Custard Pot in Shipton Moyne or the Vine Tree in Norton. We’ll have stupid banter about who fell off and who jumped what, and in an ideal world there’ll be some kind of jig band so we can dance around with the locals until closing.
I prefer not to be in London at weekends but I did stick around after the Royal wedding last month. The whole country seemed to find it a pretty special and wonderful occasion but I was lucky enough to be a guest. It was a huge privilege actually to be inside the Abbey – one of those once-in-a-lifetime things.
Outside the hunting season I tend to go racing at weekends. My friend Jake Warren and I run a members’ bar on the Saturday of Royal Ascot called The Birdcage for the 18-35 age group. It’s in the Royal Enclosure garden near Whites and the Cavalry Club, and was so packed last year that this time we’ve hired a DJ and will have a bit of a party in the evening.
Ascot sums up everything I love about the English; who else would bother to get into tails and top hats in the heat of the day in the middle of summer?
I’ve never won on a horse there but I did have a punt on my friend Sam Waley-Cohen at the Cheltenham Gold Cup earlier this year, which turned out to be a bit of a money-spinner when he won on Long Run. I then backed him each way at the Grand National and won some more when he finished second.
I like to keep Sunday mornings relaxed. I’ll be up about 10.30am and read The Week on the sofa with the lurcher beside me. For lunch it has to be a roast; either at my father’s house in Dorset – my parents are separated – or at my mother’s, then I’ll head back to London at about 4pm to miss the traffic.
When I part-owned Whisky Mist nightclub in Mayfair I used to go out on Sunday nights… and it doesn’t set you up well for the next week. I prefer to go to the cinema near my flat in Bayswater and eat sweet popcorn and one of those rank hot dogs.
I do get a bit of the Sunday evening blues but I’d feel a lot worse if I had to worry about getting into a suit to go into the City the next day and having a boss on my back. I’m lucky that I run my own business and I love doing what I do.
How the other half live eh? And incidentally his nightclub in Chelsea and exclusive to the 'hooray Henry's' was shut down because nearby residents complained about anti social behaviour, vandalism, sex acts on the street, and rowdy 'hooliganism'! Kate Middleton and Princess Anne's daughters were regulars.
Cue that Python sketch...upper class twits.
Time to get rid of the Aristocracy. I'm all for rushing the gates of the palace...perhaps next Wednesday, my day off. 
