Old enemies Richard Caring and Robin Birley square up in glitzy battle of London’s clubs

As he cradles a beachball-sized glass of Malbec and feigns interest in his dining companion, the board director’s eyes scan the room like an angler looking for a bite. He spies a whopper and casts: “Michael! So good to see you. Business good?” Icap’s Michael Spencer bends his tall frame, smiles and shakes hands: “Of course! When are we doing that lunch?”

Just another day at George, the Mount Street members’ club that is one of the places business folks simply must be seen if they’re anyone in Mayfair. This moneyed hangout is part of the growing clubland empire of Richard Caring, the perma-tanned rag trade tycoon in the news these days for his looming record-breaking divorce and a longstanding friendship with Sir Philip Green.

A short stroll west, to Berkeley Square, and you’ll find another of Caring’s clubs where more of a party atmosphere is in the air. It is Annabel’s — Caring’s, and possibly London’s, most famous members’ club. The Establishment’s nightclub for decades, Annabel’s is about to undergo the biggest change in its history.

Caring is shifting it two doors down to a vast new luxurious site that will dwarf any of his other venues when it opens next year. A nightclub, restaurants, bars, gyms, a spa — as he tells his members with a flash of his perfect teeth, there’s nothing the new Annabel’s won’t be able to offer its well-heeled clientele.

Except for just one thing, according to some of clubland’s sniffier aristocracy — class. While Annabel’s was the only nightspot of choice for Britain’s toffs and jet set in days gone by, those who consider themselves in the top drawer of London society now also party somewhere else — 5 Hertford Street.

If you don’t know what it is, you’ll probably never be invited, and will certainly never become a member. In its mere five years of existence, 5 Hertford Street has become the most exclusive membership ticket in town. The question on every Mayfair barfly’s lips now is: who will win the battle of the clubs — Annabel’s or 5 Hertford Street?

The reason it’s such a hot topic is simple. This isn’t just a scrap between two businesses but a battle between two old clubland enemies. At one end of the bar sits Caring, a humbly-born, self-made man. At the other is 5 Hertford Street’s Robin Birley, an aristocrat whose Mayfair pedigree is unsurpassed.

The Birleys are the most famous family in the world of London members’ clubs. Robin’s blue-blooded father Mark set up Annabel’s in 1963 as a place for his pals — the likes of Lord Lucan, Jimmy Goldsmith and John Aspinall — to party when they weren’t gambling at the Clermont Club. Mark Birley named the place after his wife Lady Annabel — before she ran off with Goldsmith.

Fast-forward to 2007, and Birley sold his five Mayfair clubs to Caring for £90 million. Haughtier members were scandalised and complained that Caring went on to let in too many celebrity riff-raff. Caring declines to comment on such sniping.

Robin Birley, who had argued with his father over Annabel’s need to extend its membership beyond the old set, had a plan. Why not take the best of his father’s clubs and recreate them all in one big, classy building nearby? With the backing of the billionaire Reuben brothers and Ben Goldsmith, son of Jimmy, 5 Hertford Street was born.

As one member of both Annabel’s and 5 Hertford Street puts it: “At the bottom, you have the dance floor, Loulou’s — that’s basically Annabel’s. On the ground floor, you’ve got the restaurants which feel like George or maybe Harry’s Bar. Then you’ve got the smoking bar at the top, which again is like the one at Annabel’s.”

A huge amount of bad blood erupted between the two men when Birley was planning 5 Hertford Street. Primarily, the dispute revolved around whether Birley could use his family name (he couldn’t). Tempers worsened when Caring mocked Birley for a childhood injury he suffered when he was mauled by a tiger at Aspinall’s private zoo. His face still bears the scars today but Caring told the Sunday Times: “Robin Birley’s a twit. What do we know about him? He put his head in a tiger’s mouth.”

Eventually, the club opened, sans Birley branding. Five years on, the financial figures suggest there is room in Mayfair for both 5 Hertford Street and Caring’s stable of clubs.

Companies House filings show Caring’s Harry’s Bar, Annabel’s, Mark’s, George and the Bath & Racquets Club made £4.8 million profit last year on £21 million of turnover. 5 Hertford Street cleared £519,000 on just under £12 million of takings. But will the giant new Annabel’s change that mutually profitable picture? Is there room for two big clubs in Mayfair? Will Caring poach back the members Annabel’s has lost to Birley over the past five years?

To that last question, a hedge funder at 5 Hertford Street sniffs not. “I am definitely not an Annabel’s man. Robin has got something you can’t buy, and that’s style. He doesn’t really like people very much, but that’s rather appealing. He’s like Rick in Rick’s Café — he has integrity. Better than being liked is to be admired. I won’t be frequenting Annabel’s.”

A media executive who is a member of both says: “We do still love Annabel’s — the dance floor is better. But I’m definitely a Birley man. It’s a much better crowd.”

But Caring, who by most people’s standards has a stellar membership list, will not be worried by such naysayers. His clubs have survived the worst the financial crisis can throw at them. The appeal of London to the world’s richest people has helped see to that.

Says one financier: “Both Birley’s and Caring’s businesses seem to be bulletproof no matter what goes on in the economy. We wait to see if the new Annabel’s feels as special as the old one, but be in no doubt — Caring will make it profitable. But he must be careful about extending the membership while also keeping it special.”

Caring fans declare there’s much snobbery at play among his critics. He just wants to open up cliquey clubland to reflect modern London, they say.

As Harold Tillman, the fashion entrepreneur, puts it: “I’ve been a member of Annabel’s for 35 years. I love it now, and the new one will be great too. Just as London has changed over the years, so must Annabel’s. There’s no point harking back to what it was like in the old days. For a start, many of the members back then aren’t alive any more.”