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Leconfield House, on Curzon Street, Mayfair. (Photo credit: Green Street News.)
Bloomberg has treated us to the news that Liz Truss, the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British history, is fronting a bid to attract 700 “founder members” of a new Mayfair business club - who will each be asked to pay £500,000 as founders.
£200 million of the £350 million they are hoping to raise from these initial investors will be used to pay off the mortgage on the building, while the remaining £150 million would be spent on redecorating the building, according to the project’s pitching documents. The Club is to be based in Leconfield House on Curzon Street.
The £500,000 fee, which would buy lifetime membership of “The Leconfield”, would be a debenture that can be inherited or sold on, meaning that the Club would not derive any subscription income from those members beyond their initial injection of capital funds. Any further subscription income to pay for the running and upkeep of the £350 million club would have to come from additional members, beyond the first 700 recruited.
Asked by Bloomberg whether she is being paid to promote the Club, Truss responded that she is “a commercial person, so I’m sure you can answer that question.” The Times went further, reporting: “It is understood that she will have a paid, hands-on role at the Leconfield, personally running the membership list and making introductions in the bars, lounges and boardrooms.” And asked whether the project would preclude her returning to politics, Truss remarked, “This is what I’m doing now. I’m never going to rule anything out or in.”
One of the Club’s features, according to Bloomberg, is that “Artificial intelligence will be built into the venture to track who’s in the building at any one time and [to] recommend, through an app, which members may want to meet each other and what business ideas they could discuss.”
The Club has very specific, quantifiable aspirations for its target audience, with clear financial profiling of its prospective members, and it:
“aims for around half to be executives from FTSE 100 or Fortune 500 companies, 15% to be founders or tech leaders, another 15% to be ultra-wealthy individuals, 10% to be partners at private equity firms or hedge funds, and 10% to be partners at law firms or professional services companies. According to PwC, which did due diligence on the project, there are 494,000 people globally who would fit this profile and who travel to London enough to want the Leconfield’s services.”
The project is the brainchild of property developer and securities investor Robert Tchenguiz, who has owned the building with his brother Vincent since the late 1990s. He has previously applied to Westminster City Council for permission to convert the building into a private members’ hotel, and into luxury residences, only for the council to have declined permission for a change of use from an office building.
The Westminster City Council planning portal shows that a fresh application for a premises licence was filed on 10 October 2025, and that the application was further amended on 7 November, and is listed as still pending a decision. The revised application states it is for:
“Private office and co-working space with meeting and collaboration facilities located across basement to 7th floor levels of Leconfield House, including food and beverage areas. The premises is outside of any designated Spatial Policy. No access is permitted to the general public at any time. There is no access to any licensed area direct from the street, all access is routed via the ground floor central lobby.
“The licensed areas comprise of and are restricted to a small basement level event space (pre-booked events only); ground floor formal and informal restaurants; and a seventh floor restaurant and bar with external terrace. Off sales and late night refreshment is restricted to other areas of the building as set out further below.
“Outside of the licensed areas, the building also comprises: individual and small group workspace & private meeting rooms across levels one to five; and a Specialist Tobacconist and larger workspace & private conference meeting rooms at level six.”
Bloomberg notes, “Tchenguiz is adamant it won’t be a members’ club in the traditional sense — the focus is on business, rather than partying,” and the outlet suggests, “Currently, the building is in a tired state. It’s permeated by the smell of cigarettes emanating from the chain-smoking Tchenguiz’s office.”
Tchenguiz, a former Conservative Party donor, recently gave £50,000 to Reform UK through his firm R20 Advisory Ltd. Truss says that she first met Tchenguiz at a “business event”, with Bloomberg suggesting that the event was hosted by Reform UK.
The Times describes Tchenguiz:
“A friend of Sir Philip Green, the former owner of BHS and Top Shop, Tchenguiz saw the value of his investments plunge during the 2008 financial crisis, which triggered the collapse of one of his main backers, Iceland’s Kaupthing Bank. He also had a run-in with the Serious Fraud Office, which arrested him in a dawn raid in 2011, though its investigation against him collapsed and no case against him was ever brought.”
In 2014, Tchenguiz was paid a £1.5 million settlement by the Serious Fraud Office “in damages,” with a further £15 million in legal costs, plus an apology.
Tchenguiz commented to The Times on Truss’s involvement:
“She has a big following in the business community. I am overwhelmed at the level of people who want her to lead a network on their behalf. These people understand Liz’s commitment to growth and prosperity.”
The business model bears some superficial similarities to The Executive Branch, the recently-launched Washington D.C. club for wealthy supporters of Donald Trump, co-chaired by the President’s eldest son, with a $500,000 entry fee.
A pitching video for The Leconfield, starring Liz Truss, has reportedly been sent to, “a selection of billionaires, diplomats and royalty.” Bloomberg says, “Whether Truss succeeds in attracting that caliber of people remains to be seen.” The New World, noting the crash of the British economy during Truss’s 49-day premiership, asks, “Would you give £500,000 to Liz Truss?”
A digital mock-up of the Leconfield’s planned interior. (Photo credit: Bloomberg/The Leconfield Ltd.)
The rest of the press round-up below continues to be a feature for paying subscribers only.
This fortnight’s edition contains 21 more stories from 42 outlets, spanning clubs across Europe, Asia and North America.
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