Shopping bag.

In this moment though, he is concentrating not on the profiles and arresting buildings of the next international city his team have scoped out for expansion, but on this one room. It is in an attempt to somehow convey just how that personal vision is tangibly executed across such disparate locations; across a wealth of different concepts, from the re-energised former US embassy of Soho House Istanbul to the hyper-bucolic pleasures intrinsic to Soho Farmhouse, his reimagining of a traditional English holiday camp, Soho Farmhouse.”All of our design is done in-house,” he says. “We have a group of really fascinating, talented designers but you know, I love getting involved… In fact I get involved with it all.” Finally his eyes settle on a beautifully preserved chair immediately to the side of where we’re sitting: a typically refined mid-century affair that shouldn’t in theory work in tandem with the decadently bohemian oversized couch we’re currently occupying. Of course it’s testament to Nick’s single-mindedness how well it does: all the more so when you consider it has been upholstered in a not exactly ‘safe’ shade of mustard yellow fabric. “That chair, it wouldn’t have been ordered without a nod from myself,” he says with visible satisfaction. There is little doubt that ‘the nod’ would also have to have been given to any number of other elements in the room, from the choice of rich, dark wood for the bar to the uniforms that the staff wear – at once somehow formal and relaxed all at once – to the eye-catching, eclectic artworks that occupy so much of the wall space in every room.

Nick says he always felt the urge to be more expansively creative, which perhaps explains the way he attacked with such conviction the opportunity to open the very first Soho House some 21 years ago. He went into catering at a young age – a move that surprised pretty much everyone around him, who told him it was “a shit job.” However he persevered until one day, whilst running a restaurant in the heart of Soho, “the landlord phoned me up and said ‘would you like to take the space above?’” The obvious follow up question is -but why a members club, specifically? Was there something about that moment in time, about members clubs in London or beyond that made you want to shake things up? Nick, in typical style shrugs and smiles wryly at any attempts to suggest there is a more grandiose narrative at play. “I mean, it only had a small door. I just thought, well you can’t do a big public restaurant with a small door. I know people do it now, but 21 years ago people weren’t doing it.”