Inside Beatrice and Eugenie’s secret escape after Fergie and Andrew banned

As exclusive London nightclub Annabel’s tells its employees Andrew and ex wife Fergie aren’t welcome any more, other famous revellers will continue to party on

For 62-years Annabel’s has reigned supreme as the most exclusive nightclub in London. An elegant, yet comfortable haunt, where select celebrities happily rub shoulders with lords, ladies, politicians and even royalty.

Reputedly, it’s the only nightclub where the late Queen Elizabeth II was known to have set foot. She first popped in for cocktails once in 1967. Then she joined the 70th birthday celebration of her Lady of the Bedchamber, Virginia Ogilvy, in 2003 – enjoying a gin martini with no lemon.

Membership was by invitation only when Annabel’s opened its sturdy doors back in June 1963. But it has now firmly closed them to the two black sheep of high society – Andrew Mountbatten -Windsor and his ex wife Sarah Ferguson.

Indeed, staff have allegedly been told the pair – disgraced by their association with paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein – should no longer be allowed inside.

Until now, welcome to come and go as they pleased to the £3,750-a-year club in the heart of Mayfair without formal membership, their banishment will heap further awkwardness on their daughters, Beatrice and Eugenie, who are paying members.

But Annabel’s – which, following a multi-million pound refurbishment in 2018, moved to a Grade I listed Georgian building just two doors down from its original Mayfair home in Berkeley Square – is known for never taking any prisoners.

Paul McCartney and The Beatles were once famously refused entry for not wearing shoes and Mick Jagger had to borrow a doorman’s tie before he was admitted. Queen of luxury journalism Lucia van der Post wrote of Annabel’s: “Princes, minor royals, cabinet ministers, young bucks, exiled dictators, trust fund babes, movers & shakers around town soon began to find their way to what has to be the smartest basement in the world.”

Christened after founder Mark Birley’s then-wife Lady Annabel, ironically, the club was seen as a great leveller by the couple’s friend David Wynne-Morgan, who in his Tatler column once wrote: “Celebrities in every field and every age group pack it every night, because once inside the doors they are simply members of Annabel’s.”

And for more than six decades, the rich, famous and very well-to-do have kept tottering in. Princess Diana, Frank SInatra, Diana Ross and to come more up to date, the likes of Harry Styles, Lady Gaga and Kate Moss have all enjoyed the hospitality of Annabel’s.

Lady Ashcombe, who was a part of the social set frequenting the club in its early days, once said of the swinging 60s: “You lived through it as if it was never going to end, and Annabel’s was the absolute hub”. The ultimate doyenne of glamour, Anna Wintour, former Editor-in-Chief of Vogue, said of its clientele: “Hairdressers were equally as famous as duchesses, and to the outside eye, Annabel’s was where all those people went.”

Undoubtedly the world’s most famous woman after her marriage to the then Prince Charles, Princess Diana was a frequent visitor to Annabel’s and considered Lady Annabel – who had, by then, married into the Goldsmith family – as a “mother figure”.

Diana loved the strict no photography policy inside the club, which afforded her some rare privacy.Another great beauty, Elizabeth Taylor was a frequent visitor. Joan Collins has been photographed at Annabel’s on numerous occasions, while rumour has it the club inspired her sister Jackie Collins’ 1969 novel The Stud. Joan starred in the 1978 film adaptation and some scenes were filmed at the venue.

He may no longer be a clubbing man, back when he was 28, Prince William didn’t leave the club until 1.30am – knowing a few hours later he’d be escorting his then fiancee Kate Middleton to lunch with the Queen.

Kate Moss and Lady Annabel’s daughter Jemima Khan stunned the upmarket clientele in 2006 when the two women enjoyed a 60 second kiss after then BHS boss Philip Green paid £60,000 for a ‘Kiss Me Kate’ lot in a celebrity auction.

Stephen Fry was clearly impressed when Lady Gaga performed an intimate show at the club in 2011 for an audience of around 150 people. He tweeted: “Fabulous surprise. Lady Gaga set at Annabel’s. She was just astounding. What a voice. An acoustic set of the highest imaginable quality.”

Sir Rod Steward and his wife Penny Lancaster are frequent visitors and were among the numerous VIP guests, including Andrea Bocelli, Anna Wintour, and Naomi Campbell, who attended the club’s 60th celebration in June 2023.

But it is hard to believe, considering the magnitude of Fergie’s current impropriety, that, back in 1986 when she and Princess Diana went to Annabel’s dressed as policewomen, intending to gatecrash the former Prince Andrew’s stag party – only for the venue to have moved – that this behaviour was considered, frankly, scandalous.