Why Soho House is not worth it anymore in 2026

Right, this is going to be a slightly mean essay and I want to be clear up front — I am a member, I have been a member for years, I have had a properly nice time at Shoreditch House, 76 Dean Street, the gardens at Babington. The places are still good. The product has gotten worse. Both can be true.

I am not renewing this year. Here is why.

The maths has gotten silly

When I joined, the every-house London membership was around £1,300 a year. It is now £2,400-ish depending on category, and there is a queue. The product has not gotten £1,100 better. Arguably it has gotten worse — more crowded, harder to book, less of the thing that made it feel special.

If you are using it twice a month, that is £100 a visit. For that money you can have a properly good dinner anywhere in central London with no membership at all. The maths only made sense when the unit cost per visit was low. It is not low anymore.

What actually changed

A few things, all in the wrong direction.

Crowding. Walking into Shoreditch House on a Thursday evening in 2018 vs 2026 is a totally different experience. The "this is calm and considered" vibe has been replaced with "this is a full bar in Shoreditch." That is fine if you wanted a full bar in Shoreditch. It is not what people pay £200/month for.

The mix. Soho House used to have an actual creative-industries skew — film, journalism, fashion, design. The new mix is heavier on tech, finance and influencer-adjacent. I am not making a value judgement on the people, but the room is different and the conversations are different. If you joined for the creative scene specifically, that scene has thinned out.

The houses keep multiplying. Every time they open a new one, the cap on existing houses goes up to fund it. The London houses are visibly fuller than they were five years ago. Same number of seats, more members, do the maths.

The food got worse. I am sorry but it did. The Greek doer has been on the menu since the Romans, and the standard of the rest of it has slipped. There are now better restaurants at the same price-point literally next door to several of the houses.

What people defend it with

Let me steel-man.

"It is the network." Sure, but the network has spread. People I used to bump into at Soho House now mostly drift between Mortimer House, the Conduit, the Standard rooftop, various dinner clubs, and a couple of WhatsApp groups. The network is real, it is just no longer concentrated.

"It is a place to work in central London." Also true, and actually one of the better arguments. But coworking spaces solve this for £400/month. You are paying £200/month for the bar atmosphere on top of the workspace, and the workspace has gotten worse — louder, more crowded, fewer good seats.

"You travel and need access in other cities." Fine, this one is genuinely useful if your job involves regular travel. For most members, who use one or two London houses 80% of the time, the global network is a feature you barely use.

What is actually replacing it

This is the more interesting question. A few things.

Smaller members clubs. The Conduit (politically and ethically minded), the Mandrake-adjacent stuff, Mortimer House for the design crowd, the Twentytwo for finance. These are smaller, more curated, and frankly more "how Soho House felt in 2014."

Curated dinner clubs. A bunch of these have emerged in the last two years — invite-only or referral-only, sub-£100 dinners with eight to twelve people, way more interesting conversation than a packed Shoreditch House Friday.

Coworking with vibes. Mountainhead, AllBright, parts of Second Home — give you the workspace function without the £200/month bar tax.

Just going to restaurants. This is the unglamorous answer but it is also the right one. £200 a month gets you eight properly good dinners at unmembershipped places where you can actually hear the person opposite you.

What you lose

Honestly, two real things.

The first is the rooftop and pool at Shoreditch House on a sunny Wednesday. There is no replacement for that. If you live nearby and use it weekly in summer, that one perk might justify the membership for you alone.

The second is the in-house cinema events and talks programme. Some of those are genuinely good — author conversations, film screenings, the occasional talk worth the £200/month on its own. Most of these you can replicate by following the London talks and panels feed and just paying per ticket. You will save money and probably see more variety.

The verdict

If you joined Soho House before 2019 and you mostly use it for the rooftop and the workspace, fine, keep it. If you joined in the last three years and you are paying £200/month, I would seriously look at where the actual value is for you, becuase I think for most people it is not there anymore.

The real reason I am not renewing is not the price or the food — it is that I find I no longer want to go. The rooms are louder, the people are different, the magic is gone. That is the most expensive feeling in a members club, and once you have it, the maths basically does itself.