There's Life Beyond Soho House — How London's New Private Members' Clubs Are Re-Imagining What Luxury Looks Like, By Risking It All for Out-of-the-Box Design

A warmly lit hotel lobby with a central marble and wood counter decorated with a vase, on the left, and a lamp, on the right, in similar hues, a handpainted mural behind it, speckled terrazzo flooring, and textural surfaces throughout.

A handful of seasons into Sex and the City, PR powerhouse, Samantha Jones — the boldest, most irreverent, and fearless of Carrie Bradshaw's friends — pretends to be someone else after finding a lost credit card in the toilet of Soho House in New York. Enduring an impossibly hot summer day, she is determined to do anything to get herself and her gang into its rooftop pool, and of course, a simple "I'm sorry, the waiting list is far too long," isn't enough.

It was the early 2000s and, with Soho House at its prime, Samantha knew there was only one place the in crowd would be at. But with over a hundred private members' clubs to pick from in London right now, we have reasons to think her choice would no longer fall on Soho House. Don't get us wrong: there is nothing we don't like about the Soho House look. If anything, the opposite is true: the portfolio's laidback cool reinterpreting of mid-century modern furniture, underpinned by vibrant textures and sinuously comforting silhouettes mixed with locally sourced artworks and vintage collectibles, has made its addresses instantly recognizable, strangely familiar, and covetable.