Mayfair has found a new neighbour in Liz Truss, whose planned club on Curzon Street — The Leconfield — is proving a nuisance. Named after Leconfield House, the club’s headquarters and a former site of MI5, her latest venture is billed as a high-level networking opportunity for AI enthusiasts. Membership starts at £500,000 per annum.
The former PM is intent on the club having a roof terrace. Her neighbours, not so much. Although my chances of ever ending up at the so-called ‘pro-growth’ club are nil (have the staff tried growing lettuce, I wonder?), it seems resistance to a roof terrace is misguided at best and pretextual at worst.
Leconfield, after all, was redeveloped to accommodate a members’ club more than six years ago and I cannot think of a single one that doesn’t have a roof terrace, or at least a balcony. There are several members’ clubs in the vicinity already, including Mark's and 5 Hertford Street, from whence Truss has been poaching constituents — and there used to be more. On Chesterfield Gardens, which The Leconfield backs onto, was the notorious 21 Club, frequented in its heyday by Richard Burton and Princess Margaret. It later served as a film location for vampire movie The Hunger, starring David Bowie. Would David Cameron endure such strident opposition from the W1 set if he were trying to do the same? Something tells me no. Might this be yet another case of central London Nimbyism? Something tells me yes.
A five-minute walk away from The Leconfield is the London Library, where a similar ruckus has erupted around a £5 million proposal to build a rooftop garden and social hub on the premises. Members have been banned from distributing leaflets opposing the scheme. The Times, Murdochian as ever, referred to the incident as a 'censorship row' which distracts rather unhealthily from the architectural row at the heart of the matter: the installation of a large lift, which forms part of the proposal, would destroy the acclaimed Lightwell Reading Room, so named because of the glass ceiling which bathes it in enviable natural light. Nimbyism does have a place, from time to time.
This feature originally appeared in the January 11, 2026, issue of Country Life. Click here for more information on how to subscribe.
