Stalwart of private members clubs Robin Birley has been searching for a new location in Florida’s Palm Beach, as a wave of British clubs have opened premises in the US over the past few years.
Birley, who founded the highly-exclusive London members club 5 Hertford Street in 2012, is planning to open a club in Palm Beach to rival US President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, according to a report from the Guardian. His latest club is set to be part financed by the Reuben Brothers, the multi-billionaire family duo with a vast portfolio of London real estate.
Birley’s American dream has already proven to be a reality. Last year he opened a members’ club on the Upper East Side of New York, Maxime’s, which has been a quiet success in the Big Apple. Known for being a notably British presence in the city, members are required to wear jackets at all times at the club, which lies on the site of New York’s former Westbury Hotel.
The Twenty Two, the Grosvenor Square-based private members club in Mayfair, opened its New York premises in late 2025. Another investment of the Reuben Brothers, the likes of supermodels Kendall Jenner and Hailey Bieber have been spotted inside the celebrity haunt.
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There is already a members’ club in Palm Beach with a distinct British influence, notes one of the leading real estate agents in the Florida region, Dana Koch of Corcoran Group.
‘There is a successful club in the area called The Carriage House, which was modelled after Annabel’s in London. It’s a great place to go to for people who want to be seen – it’s highly desirable, and I know initiation fees have increased significantly since it first opened in 2022.’
With London having one of the oldest and densest club cultures in the world, it makes sense that US patrons would trust a British name, says Knight Frank’s global head of research, Liam Bailey.
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‘London has been the test-bed for new concepts and new ideas and this maturity of the ecosystem here is very compelling to a global audience – including the US – if a new club has British pedigree,’ he tells Spear’s. ‘It provides reassurance.’
There has been controversy surrounding some British clubs making the trip across the pond, however. Soho House, which was founded in London in 1995, opened its first New York location in 2003, initially to much fanfare. Once a hotspot for the likes of Justin Timberlake, Leonardo DiCaprio and Sylvester Stallone, there have been recent reports of overcrowding at many of its locations, as well as concern regarding overexpansion and a diminishing quality of new members.
‘It’s a tough market and it requires massive focus to get right.. But there is the potential for a club for everyone,’ he says. ‘What members want changes – and that opens the door for new entrants.’
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A co-author of the estate agency’s Guide to Private Member’s Clubs report, Bailey notes that there is a distinct appeal for someone such as Robin Birley to open a members’ club in Florida.
Speaking about Miami, which is just south of Palm Beach, he says: ‘Not only did wealth migrate here after the pandemic, but so has business and finance, the city is almost unrecognisable from only a few years ago and with that is a much bigger, much more globally connected and much wealthier population – who demand the same services and facilities they would be offered in London or New York.’
Donald Trump’s private members club Mar-a-Lago, which he founded in 1995, has been a political centre for MAGA politics, especially since his second presidential term began at the start of 2025. Referred to by some as the “Winter White House”, high profile figures in American right-wing politics, such as Elon Musk and billionaire businessman-cum-politician Howard Lutnik, have been spotted at Trump’s Palm Beach epicentre.
Likewise, 5 Hertford Street has played host to numerous UK politicians, such as Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage and Michael Gove – it has been referred to as ‘Brexit HQ’, as it has served as a venue to discuss Conservative and Eurosceptic politics in recent years.
While entrants to British members’ clubs opening in America may be seeking a sense of tradition, some of Palm Beach’s historic members’ clubs have made attempts to move away from their exclusionary and sometimes discriminatory pasts.
‘British members clubs have a sense of ritual and prestige, that I think is very appealing in the US,’ says art and philanthropy adviser Aurelie Cauchy, co-founder of the firm The Twentieth.
‘They are more about having a sense of belonging, rather than having a transactional relationship.’
Many billionaires and other HNWs have moved to Florida from other US states in recent years, in part owing to there being no state income tax and the region becoming a new centre of US politics. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, hedge fund founder Ken Griffin of Citadel and investor Carl Icahn now each call the Sunshine State home.
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