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Maggie & Rose

Arriving at Maggie & Rose, the hip private family members’ club in Kensington, I’ve barely got past the hoard of stylish mums armed with cutesy kids and plush buggies, before founding partner Maggie Bolger, 29, a mother-of-three herself, bounces up the spiral staircase to introduce herself.

Exotic and glowing, with dark hair and olive skin, New Zealand born Maggie breezily ushers me past the reception/café (overflowing with delicious, home-baked organic fare) and shop (chock-a-block with beautiful toys and quirkily illustrated Maggie & Rose kids’ activity packs) and down the elegant spiral stairs into the Farrow & Ball-painted soft-play den. Here she introduces me to her friend and business partner, Rose Astor, 29, a mother of one.

An Edinburgh University English literature graduate, Rose exudes the same alluring combination of style, energy and laid-back cool that I’m quickly learning is the Maggie & Rose trademark. With their contrasting looks – Rose is blonde, pale-skinned, blue-eyed; the archetypal English rose – they make a dynamic duo. Maggie’s more the talker; Rose the listener, but both bubble with excitement as they discuss their two-year-old brainchild. It’s no wonder they’re both buzzing. Maggie & Rose has successfully brought to yummy-mummy land the kind of exclusive members’ club formerly reserved for Groucho Club and Soho House members. Impressively, it already boasts some250 mini-members (aged from six months to nine years and spanning more than 10 nationalities), runs around 25 classes weekly (along with additional private kids’ parties and fundraisers) and is turning over in excess of £400,000 annually. Yet endearingly they chat as if their success is a surprise, despite having clearly worked unrelentingly to get where they are today.

Maggie is the first to admit their thriving business was born off the back of Nick Jones’s hugely successful Soho House concept. Their mission? To create a haven for mums and kids away from the endless rounds of town halls and chain cafés. ‘Maggie & Rose is a “home-from-home” that caters to mothers desperate to get out of the house, but sick of hanging out in soulless places,’ Maggie explains. She adds that there is nothing that shows a gap in the market quicker than hunting in vain for something for your kids.

‘I first had the idea after getting married at Babington House in Somerset in September 2002.’ Then a mother-of-one, she’d moved to London three years earlier. ‘Suddenly I’d gone from hanging out with friends in hip, cool bars to endless rounds of dull kids’ classes in draughty church halls and dingy basements,’ she explains.

She found Babington House’s family-friendly approach a revelation. ‘I loved that they treated children as mini adults, feeding them healthy food in stylish surrounds,’ says Maggie. ‘This wasn’t your average kids meal of greasy fish and chips on plastic plates with tomato ketchup, but fresh fish and fruit presented on china plates in a cool way that appealed to children. For the first time I felt relaxed being with my children, not put out that I was in horrid surroundings or nervous that I was annoying other people who didn’t want my kids there, which can really affect that “quality time” with your children.’

Inspired, Maggie returned home and developed adult-friendly kids’ classes, which she ran first from her home, then from a hired mews studio off Gloucester Road. But it was when she met Rosie through a mutual friend in May 2006 that Maggie & Rose was born. Their meeting was, she says, ‘serendipitous’. Rose, who had used her film background to set up Busy Kids London in September 2005, running holiday-based film classes for young children, agrees. ‘It was a meeting of minds; we clicked immediately,’ she smiles, recalling how for three hours they talked non-stop. ‘We shared the same vision, so we teamed up.’

True to form, they didn’t waste any time. In four months they’d expanded and redecorated Maggie’s space to form an organic café, studio and office, and opened the Maggie & Rose doors 1 September 2007 – just two weeks after Rose gave birth. It’s no wonder their friends describe them as ‘whirlwinds’. ‘By the beginning of the second term we were bursting at the seams, running five full classes a day,’ says Rose. ‘We must have been doing something right!’

Their next move was to test out the members’ club concept. ‘In January we started charging a termly membership fee, which gave parents free access to the club and café, along with discounted classes,’ explains Rose. Again it proved a hit, so they pushed ahead with their dream of creating a proper private members’ club.

By April, they’d exchanged on their Pembroke Road building, tucked behind Kensington High Street, a short stroll from Holland Park. Notting Hill-based Alex Michaelis of Michaelis Boyd Associates, the architect behind Babington House, completely transformed the former LVMH offices into the modern, airy space it is today. ‘We wanted a place where kids can splash paint while parents can join in or relax over coffee, so we commissioned the coolest architects in London,’ says Maggie. ‘Our stipulation? “Shabby chic”: chic, but not too chic. Oh, and no primary colours: Farrow & Ball all the way!

‘We’re so lucky, it’s perfect,’ says Maggie as she shows off its cosy cinema, cookery school, dance studio, patio garden, wi-fi suite and private room for parties like a proud parent. I have to agree, everything about the place is perfection.

Here children can paint like Jackson Pollock, dance like ballerinas, sing like mini-Mick Jaggers, even grow wormeries and whip-up yummy mini fare that even I’d quite like to learn… Which is exactly where their winning formula kicks in: Maggie & Rose is for all the family. Parents want to join in too. ‘We keep our classes to a maximum of eight so they can,’ Maggie explains.

Already almost full to capacity, they’re looking to open three more clubs across London and two outside (‘probably Somerset and Cornwall’). ‘Oh, and we’ve lots of Maggie & Rose books and activity packs in the pipeline,’ adds Rose.

The key to their success is deceptively simple: ‘Regular feedback forms,’ Rose says. ‘We’re very responsive to suggestions. Mums recently requested a flower-arranging and wine class, so we’ve organised for a Wild At Heart florist to come in.’ Meanwhile, Saturday morning Wii sessions have proved hits with the Dads. ‘They love the time with the kids, and mums love sending them all off down the club on a Saturday morning,’ says Maggie, before adding: ‘One father recently commented, “Happy wives and happy children equal happy homes,” which we liked.’ Seems like they’re not the only ones...

Maggie & Rose, 58 Pembroke Road, W8 6NX; 020 7371 2200

Membership from £120 per term (12 weeks); family membership £500 per year. Classes are additional and range from £60 to £280 per term. Open Monday to Friday, 9am–6pm; Saturday and Sunday 10am–5pm.