London women's club AllBright enters administration

Club had already had one bail-out, following its previous company entering administration 18 months ago

AllBright, on Mayfair’s Maddox Street, pictured on a visit two weeks ago. The Club occupied the first floor upwards of the building.

AllBright, one of only two remaining women’s clubs in London, entered administration over the weekend.

The Guardian reports that the Club:

“emailed members last week to say it was closing the doors of its building just off Regent Street.

“Still, some staff and business members did not learn of its administration until Tuesday morning.”

The business-oriented club’s motto was “Supporting every woman, at every stage of her professional development.” It had 1,000 members, and claimed an online community of some 500,000 professional women worldwide, offering mentoring and classes. The building offered its members a bar, two restaurants, a hair salon, roof terraces, and dedicated working spaces from co-working to private booths. It enjoyed reciprocation with 42 clubs worldwide, across 10 countries.

The closure follows a string of financial difficulties throughout the Club’s seven-year existence.

The Club stated that its name was a tribute to former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. It first opened on 8 March 2018 - International Women’s Day - in premises on Charlotte Street in Fitzrovia, with a second clubhouse opening on Maddox Street in Mayfair the following year. However, financial difficulties during the pandemic meant that the original Charlotte Street branch never reopened after March 2020, and the business consolidated around the Mayfair clubhouse.

The Club’s original management company, The AllBright Group Limited, was dissolved on 19 October 2024, after reporting a pre-tax loss of £6.2 million in 2022 - the last year for which accounts were available - and entering administration on 17 July 2023.

Operation of the Club had passed to a new company, The AllBright Collective Limited, run by the collective which co-owns Chelsea Football Club. A key figure in trying to revive the fortunes of the Club in recent years has been billionaire American businessman Todd Boehly, who was listed as the Collective’s person with significant control, alongside the AllBright Investo Ltd, also controlled by Boehly. A statement by AllBright last year recognised that the tycoon’s real estate investment firm “Cain International, which led AllBright’s 2019 fundraising, wrote off approximately £7 million of AllBright’s debt by placing the Club into administration. They then bought back the business, now free of its debts.”

AllBright commented to me in their statement last year that the Club’s new leadership had, “diversified their revenue streams and focused on learning and development – both in-person and online – and on enhancing women’s careers, ensuring sustainable growth and future success.” Last August, it was reported that the Club was about to acquire everywoman, the international learning and development organisation.

The Guardian notes that, “The company’s latest set of accounts are overdue, according to filings on Companies House.” The Club is now marked by Google Maps as “permanently closed.”

Members were informed by email last Friday that in future, they will have access to “a dedicated lounge” in the Old Session House in Farringdon, but that the Mayfair clubhouse was no longer viable.

The closure of AllBright follows a string of other closures of modern London clubs in recent years. Some were casualties of the pandemic, including the Devonshire Club in Spitalfields (2016-20), the Fox Club in Mayfair (2004-21), the Hospital Club/h-Club in Covent Garden (2002-20), KPMG Number 20 in Mayfair (2015-20), Library in Covent Garden (2014-20), Milk & Honey in Soho (2002-2020), One Alfred Place in Bloomsbury (2008-21), and AllBright Fitzrovia (2018-20), as well as the more traditional Mayfair establishment, the Naval Club (1919-2021).

But many closures have been unrelated to the pandemic, including the Chess Club in Mayfair (2017-8), the Clubhouse in the City (2017-9), the Clubhouse in Mayfair (2012-9), the Court in Soho (2019-23), the Curtain Club in Shoreditch (2016-23), the House of St. Barnabas in Soho (2013-24), the South Kensington Club (2015-23), childcare club chain Maggie & Rose operating four clubhouses (2007-24), and women’s club Grace in Belgravia (2016-9). While the causes of these closures are many and various, they will not come as a surprise to those familiar with Clubland history, and the unique pressures faced by the club sector.

The closure of AllBright leaves the University Women’s Club in Mayfair, founded in 1883, as London’s last women’s club.

A spokesperson for AllBright declined to comment on the closure of the Club.