Chelsea's naughtiest night club is back at 151 King's Road

For decades, King’s Road seemed to have secured the royal warrant on nightclubbing. From Sloane Square to the World’s End and beyond, from the 1920s to the 2000s, the two-mile stretch of the originally private throughway — once used by Charles II to ride out to the hunting grounds of Kew — was a veritable covert of boîtes, discos, hang-outs and debs’ delight dive bars. And for what once seemed like forever, there was The 151 Club (“one five one”), the diviest Chelsea dive of all, affectionately nicknamed the “One Dive One” (and “One Five Slum”) by its Sloane-sleaze regulars.

A sort of anti-Annabel’s — sticky-floored, lovably insalubrious (like Henry’s first South Ken bedsit) — and hidden away behind a pair of hush-hush, postbox red doors, the hard-to-get-into, King’s Road after-hours was always full of sloshed young men. One habitué recalls a distinctly worse-for-wear night highlighted by a PR industry friend who disappeared under a table by the dancefloor, emerging five minutes later with a grin on his face and pair of knickers in his mouth. “I’ve just asked Miranda to marry me,” announced the happy chin, now in Miranda’s lap. “And she said YES!”.

Jerry Hall, Bob Geldof, Princess Diana’s lover James Hewitt, the King’s late god-daughter Tara Palmer-Tomkinson were all 151 regulars, along with Prince William and Prince Edward. Prince Harry liked to avoid the paparazzi by exiting the 151 commando style, via the fire escape — an SAS-type caper which quickly became a health and safety issue, the 151’s proprietor ordered to spend £1,200 resurfacing the back garden in case the young prince and Taliban-battling soldier slipped and hurt himself during his next late-night manoeuvre.

Then, after the Covid lockdowns, the 151, rocking raucous late nights on King’s Road since 1985, lost its lease and shuttered its infamous red doors for good. Oh dear. King’s Road suddenly seemed like such a dreadful bore. With the end of 151, Chelsea appeared to have stopped going out out. Even the last Sloane standing — the royals’ posher, non-sticky floored refuge Raffles at 287 King’s Road (think Prince William and Kate Middleton, a Chelsy Davy-squiring pre-Meghan Prince Harry etc) — has recently gone to ground too.

It was a huge sea change for the area which for so long had provided a city haven for the high-end hedonism of London’s well-heeled. Back in the day, deliciously iniquitous, girl-chasing/model boy-abundant, after-hours spots like Crazy Larry’s, Main Squeeze, The Chelsea Drug Store, Come the Revolution et al lived among swinging boutiques, smart furniture stores and posh apartment blocks. King’s Road even had London’s first lesbian bar, The Gateways, first opened in the 1930s, in a basement behind a green door at 239.

At 107 King’s Road was the super exclusive Club dell’Aretusa which attracted John Lennon, George Harrison, Sammy Davis Jr, David Bailey, Twiggy and Princess Margaret, a double-page spread in a 1968 edition of the Evening Standard once asking: “Are you one of the beautiful people? Simple test: can you get in to the dell’Aretusa?”. In 1982, the same address was taken over by Welsh playboy Dai Llewellyn and became Wedgies. Dirty Dai’s gardener brother Roddy was Princess Margaret’s toyboy lover for a while, gifting Wedgies a royal seal of approval by proxy — Prince Andrew, during his pre-Fergie “Randy Andy” days, was a regular, Dai’s annual “Deb of Year” party a hot ticket in the Golf GTI and ra-ra-skirted 1980s. Then, it all got very boring.

But what’s this coming over the hill? A Cadogan Estate-endorsed dream team of crack ambiance coordinators and celebrity wranglers is here to save the Royal Borough’s nightlife. Marc Jacques Burton, Piers Adam and Mark Cecil — hyper-connected veterans of the K&C scene (let’s call them the SW Three) — have re-assembled, Expendables-style, to get Chelsea bopping again. The trio’s new club The Rex Rooms opens next month at — you guessed it — 151 King’s Road. A two-room cocktail bar lounge and discotheque — with the prospect of a stellar guest list of celebs and aristos, artists and athletes, artful decor, go-go dancers and a late licence — promises to bring back the flirty, carefree nights of the 1960s (1970s and 1980s).

You might remember the SW Three’s names from the naughty Noughties. Finance for The Rex Rooms comes from Mark Cecil, a hedge funder/capital markets expert at West End property investment broker Capital Rise. A K&C lifer, at the centre of both Chelsea’s and Mustique’s socials and shenanigans for more than 30 years, Cecil is a National Portrait Gallery trustee and brings in more money muscle from private equity outfit Limestone Capital and Moss & Freud film producer Jason McNab. Cecil is also Mick Jagger’s best mate.

Adam and Burton were part of the team behind Prince Harry’s other favourite club, Mayfair’s Mahiki, where the likes of Margot Robbie, Benedict Cumberbatch, James Corden, Scarlett Johansson and Paris Hilton drank fruity rum cocktails out of vessels shaped like pirate galleons, and danced like no one was watching to Chic and Abba in the Polynesian-styled basement. Amanda Seyfried once did a stint behind the bar.