Soho's famous Groucho Club was the haunt of the famous and fashionable

It's the private members’ club in London from which Liam Gallagher was reportedly once thrown out for smashing a window and where Damien Hirst put his £20,000 Turner Prize winnings behind the bar for other members to enjoy.

But today all members of the Groucho Club in Soho were refused entry after it was shut down by the police having allegedly been the scene of a ‘serious criminal offence’.

The closure comes at the busiest time of year for the club, whose founding members included Stephen Fry, as Christmas party season begins.

In an email to members, chief executive Elli Jafari said: ‘We are sorry to inform you that we have made the decision to temporarily close the club.

‘We have received an application to review our licence which we take very seriously. As a consequence, the club’s licence has been suspended by agreement with Westminster City Council and we have made the decision to close the club pending a full hearing before Christmas.’

A Met Police spokesman said it had applied for a licence suspension ‘on the grounds that the venue had breached its licensing conditions and had been the scene of a recent serious criminal offence’.

The spokesman added: ‘The investigation into that offence is ongoing and as a result, there is a limit to the detail that can be provided.

‘Today’s hearing was held in private for the same reason. Further details will be released when possible.’

Neither the police nor the club would shed any light on the nature of the recent ‘serious criminal offence’. In its early ‘90s heyday, an upstairs snooker room at the club was nicknamed the Peruvian Procurement Department for the alleged availability of cocaine.

General manager Matt Hobbs left his position at the Groucho in 2018 after almost a decade, amid much speculation. The previous year the club had announced a 40 per cent increase in its membership fee.

In 2016, 14 veteran members wrote Hobbs a blistering letter, listing numerous complaints.

They included an allegation of ‘an increase in open drug-taking’ by various members and their guests, and argued that the club had ‘lost its unique feel’, which had once so appealed to the likes of Freddie Mercury of Queen and Liza Minnelli. The rot deepened – so detractors allege – in early 2017 with the retirement, aged only 49, of the club’s inspired and extraordinary manager, Bernie Katz, after 27 years.

Known as the Prince of Soho, Katz orchestrated hell-raising nights for Kate Moss and once deposited boozy writer Jeffrey Bernard back home in a wheelchair.

When Katz died unexpectedly in 2017, his devotees claimed that the Groucho’s spirit was extinguished with him. ‘He appeared crazy but actually was very professional – the consummate host,’ says one. In September, the chief executive of the club’s owner, Artfarm, left amid a row over whether the celebrity haunt had ‘gone corporate’.

Ewan Venters, former boss of the King’s grocer Fortnum & Mason, is understood to be on gardening leave until January.

This summer, an anonymous letter circulated accusing Artfarm, owned by Swiss investors Iwan and Manuela Wirth, of ‘destruction’ of the club’s culture. 

The couple employ Princess Eugenie, the King’s niece, at their Hauser & Wirth art galleries. 

The club was named after American comic Groucho Marx, who once joked: ‘I don’t want to belong to any club which will accept me as a member.’

When it opened in 1985, it was seen as an antidote to the stale, male-dominated private members’ clubs where patrons were expected to wear ties.

Comedienne Helen Lederer was one of the founding members and Stephen Fry drew up four rules: No phones, no drugs, no string vests and please leave quietly.