{"id":391065,"date":"2026-01-26T09:23:21","date_gmt":"2026-01-26T09:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/391065\/"},"modified":"2026-01-26T09:23:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-26T09:23:21","slug":"fire-rips-through-one-of-londons-most-elite-private-members-clubs-celebrity-haunt-kensington-roof-gardens-is-evacuated-after-major-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/391065\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire rips through one of London’s most elite private members’ clubs: Celebrity haunt Kensington Roof Gardens is evacuated after major fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

An elite\u00a0London<\/a>\u00a0private members’ club – once the world’s most exclusive night-spot beloved by A-listers and royalty – has been damaged by a major fire today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Eighty firefighters\u00a0with twelve fire engines battled the blaze on the sixth floor of Kensington Roof Gardens over several hours – less than two years since its\u00a0multi-million-pound refurbishment.<\/p>\n

Despite the scale of the fire, which broke out at just before 1am in the\u00a0rooftop bar area of the famous venue, thankfully there were no injuries, it was confirmed today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

London Fire Brigade is investigating the cause and remains on the scene on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

For decades Kensington Roof Gardens in Derry Street was the place to be seen in London for celebrities as well as royalty including Princess Diana<\/a>, the current Princess of Wales<\/a> and King Charles<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The grade II-listed former nightclub is famed for its showbiz bashes and charity galas attended by\u00a0Madonna<\/a>, Kate Moss<\/a>, Freddie Mercury<\/a>, Mick Jagger<\/a>, Sir David Beckham<\/a>, Idris Elba<\/a> and countless other stars.<\/p>\n

Its historic Alhambra-inspired Spanish garden, first completed in 1938\u00a0atop the famous Derry and Toms department store, covers 1.5 acres and\u00a0famously had\u00a0flamingos and ducks,\u00a0fully grown trees and a running stream. It became a nightclub in 1978.<\/p>\n

But the flamingos left when the\u00a065,000 sq ft site was sold by Sir Richard Branson in 2021.\u00a0\u00a0It is now owned by Stephen Fitzpatrick, the founder of OVO Energy, who re-opened it as a\u00a0private members’ club in the summer of 2024.<\/p>\n

The major\u00a0fire broke out at 12.57am on Monday morning and raged on for over two and a half hours until fire crews could subdue the blaze, the flames being under control by 3.36am.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The sky was lit up bright orange as the flames raged in the rooftop garden bar at the top of the nine storey office block in High Street Kensington<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The fire brigade was called just before 1am and the fire was not quelled until just after 3.30am. Derry Street was cordoned off<\/p>\n

\"80 <\/p>\n

80 firefighters were scrambled from\u00a0Kensington, Hammersmith, Chelsea and surrounding fire stations in 12 fire engines<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A 32-metre high turntable ladder was used as an observation deck to see the fire from above<\/p>\n

A receptionist in one of the offices below said just before 6am this morning: ‘We’ve had to wait outside in the cold since 1am and they’ve only just let us back in.’\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fire engines are still parked dotted all over High Street Kensington this morning, with hoses still attached to hydrants and snaking over pavements while uniformed crews secure the area and make final checks.<\/p>\n

An investigation into the cause of the fire has now been opened.<\/p>\n

Dramatic photos of the burning bar were published by the LFB on social media platform X.<\/p>\n

The sky is lit up orange with flames raging through the rooftop area and thick black smoke is seen to be pouring out of the inferno.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Specialist equipment had to be used to tackle the blaze up on the sixth floor of the historic building\u00a0on Derry Street.<\/p>\n

The LFB employed one of their 32-metre turntable ladders to get crews up to the rooftop garden bar on the top floor as quickly as possible and to serve as an observation deck that the Incident Commander could use for an aerial view of the fire.<\/p>\n

An LFB spokesperson said: ‘Twelve fire engines and around 80 firefighters tackled a fire at a commercial building on Kensington High Street in Kensington.<\/p>\n

‘Part of the rooftop bar area of the nine-storey building was alight.<\/p>\n

‘One of the Brigade’s 32-metre turntable ladders was used at the scene as an observation tower to provide the Incident Commander with an aerial view of the fire.<\/p>\n

‘The first call was received at 00.57 and Control Officers mobilised crews from Kensington, Hammersmith, Chelsea and surrounding fire stations to the scene. The fire was under control by 03.36.<\/p>\n

‘The cause of the fire is under investigation.’<\/p>\n

\"Kate <\/p>\n

Kate Moss leaves a\u00a0Kensington Roof Gardens event last year<\/p>\n

\"Kate <\/p>\n

Kate Middleton leaves Sir Richard Branson’s summer party at Kensington Roof Gardens in 2006<\/p>\n

\"Freddie <\/p>\n

Freddie Mercury\u00a0with his friend Mary Austin at a KRG party thrown after Queen’s Wembley gigs in 1986<\/p>\n

\"George <\/p>\n

George Harrison and pop icon Madonna attend a press conference for her new film ‘Shanghai Surprise’ on March 6, 1986 at the Kensington Roof Gardens<\/p>\n

\"Kensington <\/p>\n

Kensington Roof Gardens is one of London’s most iconic venues.\u00a0For many years it has flamingos but these were moved to a zoo after it closed for refurbishment in 2021. It reopened in 2024<\/p>\n

A Kensington and Chelsea Council spokesperson said: ‘We would like to thank the London Fire Brigade for their swift response to a fire at a rooftop venue off Kensington High Street in the early hours of Monday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘We are very grateful that no one was injured and the fire has now been extinguished, and Council specialists will be supporting ongoing safety checks on the building.\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘There may be some disruption in the area this morning while the emergency services complete their work’.<\/p>\n

The Daily Mail has contacted Kensington Rooftop Gardens for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An elite\u00a0London\u00a0private members’ club – once the world’s most exclusive night-spot beloved by A-listers and royalty – has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":391066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[97,59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-391065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-dailymail","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=391065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/391065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/391066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=391065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=391065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=391065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}