Nick Jones On Why You Can't Simply Book A Room At His Newest Project, St. Clement London

Unless you know what you are walking into, it is hard not to feel disoriented when setting foot in the lobby of London’s St. Clement.

For starters, there are no usual hotel lobby check-in screens and receptions that one expects. Or the very familiar sight of families lugging scores of Rimowas or American Touristers while jet-lagged toddlers scream their lungs out, begging for attention. Instead, within the cavernous, welcoming space of four pale-coloured walls, one finds oneself surrounded by the paraphernalia usually attributed to the living room of an eccentric with artistic leanings. To your right hangs Richard Horwood’s 1799 plan of the City of London, in the middle stand vintage furniture pieces by George Nakashima and Jean Royère, sourced by Alex Eagle Studio. Books, rather tomes, filled with lavishly shot pictures from masters like Basquiat and Helmut Lang, stand littered across tabletops. If one pays attention, a subtle citrus scent with notes of dewy freshness lingers in the air. Upon asking, my attention is pointed to a host of burning candles spread across the room; yes, this is a hotel with its own bespoke namesake scent.

“I think we’ve spent a lot of time trying to get the feel right,” says Nick Jones to me as we sit down across a table in the lobby — Jones with a cup of Earl Grey and myself with a cappuccino. After spending nearly three decades refining the intimate, non-ostentatious yet culturally luxurious hospitality that has become the trademark of Jones’ Soho House, the 62-year-old maverick wanted to turn his attention to something new after stepping down from the Soho House board in 2022.

London has no dearth of hotels, but with St. Clement located within the Brutalist complex of 180 Strand, Jones wanted to build an institution “from a Londoner, for someone with a lot of passion towards London. We want this to be a new address for people who regularly come to London and appreciate nice things, without being showy or flashy.” To this effect, St. Clement — which Jones is collaborating on with property developer and entrepreneur Mark Wadhwa, best known for giving 180 The Strand a second lease of life through its acquisition in 2012 — is a quiet correction of everything about the “kerfuffle” of hotels that has ever annoyed Jones.

In the hotel’s 90-room and 15-suite building complex, one may only “request” rooms, not book them (“I have spent so long building the place, and my team, I only want people who can appreciate and understand that,” explains Jones). One never has to check in (a part of hotel stays that Jones vehemently detests) and can casually stroll into their room and start their stay once their booking has been confirmed. There is no endless stream of bills that need one’s signature and no forms that need to be completed for access to the laundry. In short, Jones describes the project as what “The Savoy would be if it was not built in 1871. It is not about bowler hats and heels but trainers and cashmere.”

Three decades ago, when Jones started Soho House above a tiny café in Greek Street, he was just a regular working-class boy with a penchant for hospitality. “I was dyslexic, and so university was out of the question, but I loved working at my local sports bar. It was also a time when I realised the moment was opportune for Britain to do something in the hospitality sector,” he recalls. For the next few years, he turned his private members’ club into a large-scale multinational proposition, overseeing an IPO before steering the company back in a billion-dollar reprivatisation deal three years later.

But when cancer came calling at his door, Jones graciously stepped away from his role as CEO in 2022. “I have rested and recovered since, and while it looks like I did not get a break, I actually did. I did not have anything lined up,” he says with a laugh. “Until I found this project, and I am so grateful for it. Because imagine waking up to do something every day that you feel passionately about without having to jump on airplanes all the time."

After a “soft summer” operation, the hotel is gearing up to formally open its doors to the public in September 2026. Having run a private members’ club all his life, Jones is thrilled at the idea of taking up the stewardship of a hospitality project that is rooted in a certain spirit of participatory democracy. But even the visionary, Jones quickly points out the importance of shaping St. Clement with a community of its own.

“Strand is one of the oldest places in London, and today, with the opening of the Corner Shop Cafe and the existence of Reference Point as a modern- day library and co-working spot for the creatively inclined, it is one of the newest and coolest places to hang around in London,” says Jones. As a fellow King’s College graduate, the depth of his comment is barely lost on me. The Brutalism of the Arundel Complex’s construction notwithstanding, the Strand area today stands as a major creative hub, with offices like Frieze, the British Fashion Council and Standing Ground, among others, all being housed inside 180 Studios. “I want this place to have its own evolving creative community. You should casually walk in and catch someone writing a Hollywood script in the lobby,” adds Jones while tilting his head towards a certain gentleman on the corner couch behind us. As recognition strikes, my jaw drops in shock. Jones, ever the gracious, entertaining host, just laughs.

The hotel may open fully in September, but Jones is already thinking less about the opening than about what happens afterwards: filling it every night, attracting the right people, completing the restaurants and bringing the private spaces, like the multi-floor, membership-only private health club within the hotel complex, to life. There is still, he says, “a long way to go.” And that, perhaps, is exactly how he likes it.