Maison Estelle closes in Mayfair as police probe alleged weapon incident

One of London's most exclusive private members' clubs has shut its doors after Westminster City Council suspended its alcohol licence with immediate effect, following a police application over alleged threatening behaviour and a claim that a weapon was brandished in a street nearby.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed it had asked the council to review the licence of Maison Estelle, a seven-floor members' club in Mayfair, because the premises was "allegedly associated with serious crime, or serious disorder, or both". The action relates to an incident on 19 September, the force said. No injuries were reported.

Councillors took the decision at a private hearing on Thursday, and the club — which has counted Princess Beatrice, Idris Elba and Kim Kardashian among its guests — said it expected to remain shut for "a few weeks" while the investigations continue.

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said a further hearing would be held in due course, adding: "The circumstances remain under investigation, including whether a firearm — or imitation firearm — was involved." The distinction matters, because the suspected weapon has not been confirmed, and the club's own operation is not said to have been directly involved in the incident being examined.

The Met did not describe what is alleged to have happened beyond the reference to threatening behaviour and the possible brandishing of a weapon in a nearby street. The club itself is situated in a black-and-white Georgian townhouse overlooking Grafton Street, with long windows and planted trees flanking its porch — a setting far removed from the more visible nightclub and late-bar activity that dominates police licensing files in the capital.

Westminster City Council said that, having considered the Met's application and the relevant representations, councillors suspended the licence "in the interest of public safety". Notably, the club did not oppose that application, meaning the suspension was not contested by the venue at the interim stage — though it retains the right to be heard when the matter returns for a full review.

A spokesperson for the club said: "The safety of our staff, our members and their guests will always come first." The venue added that it was "continuing to work closely with Westminster City Council and the police as we review our licence conditions and procedures" — language that suggests an internal audit of how the premises is managed.

Councillors will revisit the licence at a full hearing due to take place within 28 days. In practice, that second stage is where the substantive questions are settled: whether the suspension should be lifted, varied, or converted into a formal cancellation. Suspension under the licensing framework is designed as a holding measure, allowing operators to contest an allegation while an investigation continues, and it can be extended or ended depending on what the review finds.

The scale of the business under suspension is considerable. According to the Maison Estelle website, the club spans seven floors and includes four dining rooms, 11 bars and two floors of "nightlife spaces". Membership costs £5,950 a year — a detail that has become shorthand for how tightly the capital's private club sector is bound together, and how quickly a reputational problem can be amplified in such a small, interconnected community.

For members, the immediate consequence is practical. Restaurants, bars and members' areas are all unavailable while the club is closed, and bookings for private events, which can be arranged months in advance, are likely to be affected. For staff, the closure means no income during the shutdown, even though the club has committed to paying for the safety work it says it will carry out.

The case also lands at a moment when similar licence actions have become a recognisable feature of London's nightlife regulation. The Groucho Club, another long-established private members' club, closed over "serious crime" claims in an article the BBC published in November 2024. Taken together, the two cases underline the pressure on members' clubs that trade on discretion and high-spending guests, many of whom are also residents in tightly governed central London wards.

Westminster is the council responsible for some of the busiest licensing territory in the country, covering Mayfair, Soho and much of central London. Its record of using interim suspensions means a club can be shut within days of a police application rather than waiting for a full case to be heard — a speed that critics of the process sometimes say favours a quick intervention over measured consideration.

Neither the Met nor Westminster City Council has said whether any person has been arrested or whether anyone is facing charges, and the club has said only that it is reviewing its licence conditions and procedures. With the full hearing set within 28 days and the investigation still open, the questions that remain unanswered are whether anyone will be prosecuted, whether the suspected weapon was real or imitation, and whether the incident is judged to be connected closely enough to the premises to put the licence permanently at risk.