Downey to relaunch the East Room in Clerkenwell
Match Bar Group owner Jonathan Downey has revealed plans for a replacement venue for the East Room, following the fire that destroyed the original private members' club in Shoreditch last week.
Downey said that work would start on a new, as yet un-named, business with an "East Room feel" in nearby Clerkenwell in April, with the opening planned for early May.
Last week more than 100 firefighters tackled the blaze in Tabernacle Street, east London after it was reported at 4.32am on 11 March.
The East Room club and Sosho bar and restaurant, both owned by Downey, were completely gutted by fire and suffered water damage at a cost of "millions of pounds" and the building was declared unsafe.
"We're getting stuck into the miserable aftermath," Downey said. "We'd like to rebuild on that site but the character of the building was key to our success. If the freeholder decides to build a glass-and-steel box on that site, then it wouldn't work."
Downey told Caterer that an immediate concern was the loss of membership revenue as a result of the closures. "We've got thousands of members with nowhere to go, many of whom would have been scheduled to renew in the next 10 weeks.
"That's hundreds of thousands of pounds of pure profit at risk," he said.
Downey is in talks with friends about arranging temporary membership at their clubs until the East Room can reopen.
In addition he said that while every effort would be made to reallocate the 50 staff within the group, there would inevitably be some job losses. He stressed that keeping morale high was a priority and said there was a staff Q&A session held on Tuesday.
The source of the fire is believed to be the kitchen of Sosho. However, Downey said it would be many months before anything was confirmed. The cause also remains unknown and there were no reported injuries.
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By Janie Stamford
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