5 Hertford Street & LouLou's: How to Get In, Membership & Alternatives

5 Hertford Street is the club London whispers about, and LouLou's — the nightclub in its basement — is where the whispering ends up at 2am. It's also, for almost everyone searching for a way in, out of reach. Here's the honest picture, and where the same kind of night is actually bookable.

What 5 Hertford Street Is

Opened by Robin Birley in 2012 in Shepherd Market, 5 Hertford Street is routinely described as the most exclusive members' club in the world — a warren of dining rooms and drawing rooms with the nightclub LouLou's below. The clientele runs from royalty to heads of state to Hollywood, and the club cultivates its privacy as the core of the product: no cameras, no coverage, no public anything.

Birley pedigree matters here: this is the same family tradition that produced Annabel's, and LouLou's is its modern heir — which is why it's the most name-dropped nightclub in Mayfair that almost nobody can name a way into.

How Entry Actually Works

Membership — by proposal and election. Existing members put candidates forward, the club decides on its own criteria and timeline, and fees sit at the very top of the market. There is no public application route worth the name, and no fast track.

As a member's guest — the realistic path. Members bring guests under the club's rules, and that's how virtually every non-member who has seen LouLou's got there.

Private events — the club hosts them; attending one is entry.

What doesn't exist: a guestlist, tickets, paid entry, public tables, or any legitimate concierge selling access. We book Mayfair tables every night of the week — LouLou's is not bookable, by us or anyone. Treat any claim otherwise as the red flag it is. (The same is true of Annabel's around the corner, and our guide to it covers that club's story.)

The Bookable Alternatives

What draws people to LouLou's — intimacy, heritage, a beautiful room, discretion, a serious crowd — maps onto venues you can actually book tonight:

• Maddox Club — the closest bookable thing to a members'-club night: small, dark, elegant, with a Mayfair-regulars crowd. Tables from £1,000.
• Scotch of St James — genuine 1960s heritage in a Masons Yard townhouse; the most characterful bookable room in the area, with VIP tables from £1,500.
• Dear Darling Mayfair — Jermyn Street polish with a refined, slightly older crowd.
• Maison Close — the intimate house-music den for a night that stays low-lit and insidery.

All free to enquire — tell us the occasion via a London nightclub booking and we'll match the room and have options back within the hour.