For most of the last four decades, he has been a host, a friend and, perhaps especially given the uninhibited behavior he witnessed in the wee hours of the morning, a keeper of secrets.
Now, however, at the age of 78, the man you really call “Mr. Chelsea,” the urbane, effortlessly engaging Giorgio Burlo, founder of 151 – the basement nightclub on London’s King’s Road through which Prince Harry once retreated down the fire escape – is calling it a day.
The club’s opening night in 1985 was attended by the so-called ‘Seducer of the Valleys’, Baronet Sir Dai Llewellyn, who became a fixture, as did Princess Diana’s one-time lover James Hewitt. This was also true of doomed socialite Tara Palmer-Tomkinson – “she lived there,” recalls Giorgio, explaining that Tara was for a time the girlfriend of one of his sons, Simon – and Bob Geldof, who had “a lot of parties.” organized. in 151, “including his 50th.”
With so many rich memories, Giorgio accepts retirement reluctantly – and after a protracted dispute with Cadogan Estates.
Giorgio Burlo, founder of 151 – the basement nightclub on London’s King’s Road from which Prince Harry (pictured on Thursday) once retreated via the fire escape – is calling it a day
Led by the hard-line 8th Earl Cadogan, who until his death in June closed a restaurant on his 93-acre Chelsea estate because it failed to impress him, Cadogan Estates refused to grant the lease on 151 after the end of lockdown extend. “I paid rent but they sent it back,” Giorgio tells me. “I always did what they asked but for some reason they wanted the club back.”
The closure caused dismay among supporters, with one of them writing, “I feel like a part of me is missing.”
With no signs of resolving the standoff, Giorgio underwent what was supposed to be a routine thyroid operation that lasted half an hour. But one mistake – “The surgeon forgot to occlude my vein” – almost proved fatal. “I went into a coma,” adds Giorgio, who remained unconscious for a week.
He then accepted the inevitable, knowing that the £5.6bn Cadogan family could afford to stay quiet, even if it meant leaving the club empty.
“They bought the remaining 15 years of my lease,” he tells me, adding that Cadogan also paid a very modest sum for the right to use the 151 name.
But he still has his memories – including those of the two princes. “Harry came a few times,” he remembers. “He walked around and talked to people.” William was serious. He was sitting there in a corner. “He acted like a prince, like someone who would one day be king.”
Another king, not usually associated with nighttime revelry, dropped by. “Prince Edward came,” Giorgio recalls, adding that Edward was accompanied by “an entourage” of friends.
There were also much older visitors, including actor Leslie Phillips, always known for his fruity-sounding catchphrase “Ding Dong” and going into 151 at 151, and lawyer George Carman, who famously secured the acquittal of the former Liberal leader Jeremy Thorpe when Thorpe was accused of conspiring to murder his former lover Norman Scott. Carman, Giorgio recalls, “danced — and everything.”
The club’s opening night in 1985 was attended by the so-called ‘Teducer of the Valleys’, Baronet Sir Dai Llewellyn, who, like Princess Diana’s one-time lover James Hewitt, became a fixture. Pictured: 151 Club in Chelsea
Only those who did not conform to Giorgio’s standards of dress and decency were turned away. George Michael was one of them. “He had an earring,” Giorgio recalls, explaining that men with earrings or tattoos are forbidden.
More recently, the 151 had become a home away from home for Made In Chelsea stars like Binky Felstead. “I treat it a little bit like a second home,” Binky said. “If I don’t get enough attention or have had a lot to drink, I just take off my shoes and go to sleep.”
Other club owners might have reacted angrily. Not Giorgio. “I would like to thank everyone who visited the club,” he says.
Of Cadogan Estates he says: ‘It’s run very well – ruthlessly well run.’ Let’s hope they finish 151 at £6bn.’
Cadogan Estate confirms it acquired the lease for the club as “part of an agreement made as a result of the tenant’s desire to retire and go out of business”.
A spokesman said: “Recognizing the value that facilities like The 151 Club bring to Chelsea, Cadogan has made the decision to retain the name and use of the premises and will shortly be looking to sell them to a new tenant rent.” in keeping with the spirit of the original.’
As loudmouth media tycoon Logan Roy in Succession, Brian Cox had problems with his feuding children. In real life, his four offspring can be almost as challenging.
Speaking at a BFI event in London to celebrate his 50-year career, the 77-year-old Scot said: “I have grown children who I love but they can be nasty at times.” “My daughter is wonderfully crazy but the boys can be a bit hard to deal with.”
As loudmouth media tycoon Logan Roy in Succession, Brian Cox had problems with his feuding children
The clever couple talk about…Flora’s coming to terms with her Churchill past
Flora Soames is too young to have met her great-grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill, but she chose a location close to his heart for her book launch.
The interior designer, 40, left, hosted the party at Lavery’s Studio in Kensington, west London, where Churchill was being taught to paint by artist Sir John Lavery.
Her book “The One Day Box” is a “memory of the houses I’ve lived in and love,” she tells me. “The book is about my insanely out of control collecting habit.” “I’ve had a one-day box my whole life: a place to keep things I couldn’t put down, from fragments of letters to textiles to old stuff Paper and porcelain.”
Her husband, ceramic artist Alexander “Blondie” Macdonald-Buchanan, was one of her inspirations: “He’s incredibly supportive. I feel like it’s totally our story that we want to tell.”
Flora Soames is too young to have met her great-grandfather, Sir Winston Churchill, but she chose a location close to his heart for her book launch
Jemma: I’m having too much fun to get married
The Duke of Wellington’s son and heir, Arthur Wellesley, is set to be wed to Canadian Hayley Whitehead, but his former wife, Jemma Kidd, isn’t going to exchange vows with her billionaire friend Arpad “Arki” Busson anytime soon.
“I’m not engaged,” the model and make-up artist tells me at a party in west London. “I just got divorced and I’m really enjoying life and where I’m at right now.”
She has been dating French businessman Arki (60), pictured with Jemma, since 2021. He has two sons with Australian supermodel Elle Macpherson and a daughter with Pulp Fiction star Uma Thurman.
Jemma, 48, sister of TV personality Jodie, has three children with Arthur. “I’m starting a new company that’s still in its early stages,” she says. “I just put my head down because a new business is like a newborn baby. It’s about wellness and everything I’m passionate about.”
Jemma Kidd (pictured in 2013) won’t be tying the knot with her billionaire boyfriend Arpad “Arki” Busson any time soon
Jemma Wellesley, Countess of Mornington and Arpad Busson attend the Fashion Trust Arabia Prize 2022 awards ceremony
Pregnancy has given Pixie Lott a taste for meat. “I’ve been a pescatarian for a long time and now I eat chicken,” the pop singer tells me. “I really enjoy it and I don’t know how this happened.”
Lott, 32, who is expecting her first child with her husband, model Oliver Cheshire, added: “I love eating Nando’s and there’s a takeaway near us called The Fat Chicken – that’s the one.”
Bond girls condemn 007 bosses for killing a spy
Bond girls are still shaken and touched by Daniel Craig’s final performance as 007, No Time To Die, when not only did he have a child, but the spy was killed as well.
“The fact that Bond died upset me,” Caroline Munro, star of The Spy Who Loved Me, tells me at the opening of Alistair Guy’s Incidentals 2 photo exhibition at the House of Swaine in Mayfair.
Martine Beswick, who appeared with Sean Connery in From Russia With Love and Thunderball, says of the latest film: “I didn’t like it.”
Regarding Lea Seydoux, the French actress who starred alongside Craig, Beswick says: “I didn’t like the Bond girl in the lead role.” [And] “I didn’t understand why they had to have a child – it didn’t work.”
Martine Beswick, who appeared with Sean Connery in From Russia With Love and Thunderball, says of the latest film: “I didn’t like it.”
Dust off your topper, Wills!
It could be quite deafening in Norfolk today, thanks to the “Turnip Toffs” who not only shoot partridges but also fly volleys of champagne corks – especially on the van Cutsems’ 4,400-acre Hilborough estate, home of the Prince of Wales ‘ great friend William van Cutsem and his wife Rosie.
Because Rosie’s younger sister Lucia Ruck Keene (37) is engaged to the landowner Jack Wrigley (32) from Old Harrovian.
Lucia grew up in Oxfordshire, in the mansion that once belonged to Jerome K. Jerome, author of the Victorian classic Three Men In A Boat.
But during lockdown she escaped to Hilborough, where her brother-in-law taught her to box.
“When I first started, my left hook was apparently like a wet salad,” Lucia remembers.
Luckily, she also had time to work for Troy London, the fashion label she and Rosie founded a decade ago and whose adoring fans include the Princess of Wales.
Lucia Ruck Keene, 37, has become engaged to Old Harrovian landowner Jack Wrigley, 32
Antiques expert Bunny mourns heroic husband
She once discovered the most expensive doll in the world at the time, which sold for £188,000. But Antiques Roadshow favorite Bunny Campione has now lost something far more precious – her husband, Major Iain Grahame, who has died aged 91.
During his time with the King’s African Rifles, Grahame had Idi Amin, the future dictator of Uganda, under his command. He then visited Uganda with his second wife Didy, who, to the horror of those present, asked Amin to remove the fake VC from his chest.
Amin obeyed – perhaps one of the reasons why Grahame was sent back to Uganda after Amin ordered the execution of Denis Hills, a British writer who had described him as a “black Nero” and a “village tyrant”. Here too, Grahame – and Hills – survived.
His first meeting with Bunny was unfortunate: they drove around a corner on a country road and ran into each other. But many years later they met again. Love blossomed and they married in 2002.
Heidi Klum’s girlfriend meets her distant father
German model Heidi Klum split from Italian billionaire Flavio Briatore while she was pregnant with his child.
When she gave birth to her daughter Leni, she was dating pop star Seal, who later became Leni’s adoptive father.
When Briatore, now 73, was asked about his relationship with Leni seven years ago, he told an Italian newspaper: “It’s hard to miss a baby you never see.”
Now, however, he seems keen to make up for lost time. I can reveal that Leni, 19, who appeared in a lingerie ad campaign with her mother, is enjoying a holiday aboard a yacht in Monaco with Briatore (pictured).
19-year-old Leni, who appeared in a lingerie advertising campaign with her mother, enjoys a vacation aboard a yacht in Monaco with Briatore (pictured).
(Very) modern manners
If you see a familiar-looking head hanging out the window first thing in the morning, it could be that of Julia Bradbury.
The 53-year-old TV host has a health routine that might surprise the neighbors.
“One of my most important daily rituals is to stick my head out the bathroom window as soon as I wake up, rain or shine,” she says. “Morning light has a direct effect on the human brain, setting the internal clocks that are crucial for every cell in our body.” It changed my life.”