Looking back at five years of Soho House and next steps with Regional Director of Asia, Kelly Wardingham

Last month, Soho House Hong Kong celebrated its fifth anniversary. The month was filled with exciting happenings, ranging from four-hand dinners and guest shifts to artist talks and music performances. Amidst the celebrations, we caught up with the Regional Director, Asia of Soho House, Kelly Wardingham. She shared some highlights from the past five years and gave us a peek into what’s next for the social club.

Since entering Hong Kong, Soho House has established itself as one of the cultural and creative hubs to be in the city. Here, members from all backgrounds and cultures can meet and connect while enjoying the House’s events and facilities. Whether it’s wellness events, screenings, exclusive meals, comedy nights, live performances, or more, its programme accommodates everyone.

Over the years, the House has also built a reputation for nurturing and supporting the city’s creatives. Soho House often features artists in its programmes like Soho Rising or collaborates with local groups and organisations. Through the House, emerging and established creatives get to network, show off their work, and build a community.

Fast forward to the present, Soho House Hong Kong is celebrating its fifth anniversary. Despite opening during one of the most challenging times, the House has become a mainstay in Hong Kong’s social scene. We spoke with Kelly Wardingham, the Regional Director, Asia of Soho House to talk about how the club made this happen. Aside from looking back at the past five years, she shared her thoughts on this year’s anniversary celebrations. She also shared with us some of the exciting plans Soho Hosue has for Hong Kong and Asia looking forward. Keep reading below for the full interview.

The past, present, and future of Soho House with Kelly Wardingham

Congratulations on Soho House Hong Kong’s 5th anniversary! Can you tell us how the Hong Kong House has grown over the past five years?

I think what’s been key for us over the last five years is really building on the creative community. That’s what our membership base is about. It’s about us nurturing and growing the creatives. But within that, we also focus on what it is that members want to use the House for. I think each person wants something different out of the house, be it from our wellness facility — we’ve got three floors of wellness space; on top of that, we offer a wide range of different activities for those who are looking for that; to the cinema, where we work with local, filmmakers, producers, directors, and really nurture that local creative field.

 

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What are some of your highlights from the past five years of Soho House Hong Kong?

Seeing such great collaboration between people. It’s been really amazing to see the emerging talent and integrating with the more established talent, whether that be in the way of music or film, or any of the other creative pillars for that matter. It’s good to see people coming and working together to help each other grow their businesses.

I think a key moment for me is working on our mentorship program. Soho House Hong Kong launched that back in 2021. Since then, we’ve taken 40 young adults who want to take themselves to the next level in their careers within the creative industries. We partner them with current members to be their mentors. They go through a 16-week program, which takes them to a space that they maybe wouldn’t have been able to get to before that. That’s been a really key thing for us and seeing some of those people come out the other side.

We’ve got one achievement where Anushka, one of our mentees, is just about to launch her own skincare range. She goes and collects fruits and flowers from temples. She uses that as her base for her range. I think it’s good to see the success stories come out of some of these projects we’ve worked on.

Do you have any upcoming plans/performances/events for Soho House Hong Kong you can share with us?

We’ve got lots of things coming up. As I said before, we like to support emerging artists and the local community. But also, it’s important for us to bring in a wider range from our global reach. So we’ve got Sean Shibe, who’s coming to do an electronic set. He’s from Edinburgh but has an English and Japanese background, so I think that’s going to be a really exciting one ahead. We’ve also got Sunny Lukas coming later this year in October. He is part of our Soho Rising program, where we look after emerging talent and support them across the globe and that goes on in all of our Houses.

We’ve noticed a push in live music and performances recently. Is that the direction Soho House Hong Kong is looking to head in?

I think we lean into what members want. They like to see a diverse offering within our music scene. So, yes I would say is the answer, but we also focus on all of the other pillars within our events programming. Within the music scene, we like to offer something to everyone. Whilst we go down a traditional jazz route one night, we might have a rapper the next, and then, somebody that nobody knows that’s emerging the next night. I think it’s about touching on all of those different genres within the music scene, whether that’s live music, DJ sets. I think members want to see that, so that’s really key for us.

 

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Five years is a big milestone. What other goals or milestones have you set your sights on for Soho House Hong Kong?

Continuing to be the leader in this field. It’s key for us to continue to grow that creative community. I think Hong Kong has an abundance of clubs and I think it’s about us staying true to who we want to nurture and what our values are. For us to continue to grow over the next five years, I think there are some exciting things to come as we develop into the wider Asia market.

Soho House Hong Kong had an exciting line-up of anniversary celebrations. Which ones were you personally most excited for?

I would say the food and beverage events. Food and beverage is my passion. We had a really great pop-up this week with Yaya’s from Shanghai, which is an Italian fusion with Chinese, which was really well received by the members. I really loved that one.

I think Andrew Wong was a really special moment. He curated a 17-course menu, which is a great experience for the members. He flew in from London, where he has a two Michelin-starred restaurant there. And then the Bar Oscar takeover, which I think was a really great one. So food and beverage moments are the ones for me, but also Matt Davis’ comedy night was a real, real good moment.

What does the process of planning these events look like? Why these people, why these events?

Again, I think it comes back to what members want. This month was really about us celebrating key things that we’ve seen members enjoy over the last five years. I think food and drink seem to be a big driving force in Hong Kong. There’s a great level of restaurants and bars that have popped up. You can see it in the 50 Best Bars awards that came out, Hong Kong is really strong for that. So it’s key for us to be fresh and keep bringing some excitement to the members. So, working with international, restaurants, bar pop-ups, and musicians, I think that’s what the members wanted. I think we’ve really touched upon hitting all of those points for everyone.

What do you think sets Soho House apart from other social clubs?

I’d say probably our global network. We’ve got 44 Houses around the world. I think that really opens the doors up to members to experience something different. You can go from Hong Kong to Mexico to Rome to the Farmhouse in Oxfordshire. They’re all really different experiences, but you get the same feeling when you go from one to the next. And having those touch points as you move around the world, I think is really lovely for our members to experience. Also, they get to experience a local flavour as well.

Apart from Hong Kong, what’s next for Soho House?

Tokyo is the next exciting moment that we have coming to to Asia. I think all of our members across our Asia membership base and beyond that are very excited for that opening. Aside from that, Sydney is coming and then we expand further into India as well. We’ve got another House coming in Mumbai to the south of the city and another one in Delhi, too. So, lots of exciting things to come.

We’ve obviously got the Cities Without Houses program as well, which hits other cities across Asia. Seoul and Singapore are two big markets for us, and we’re growing a great membership base there. It’s good for them to be able to see the market expanding around them, so when they travel, they can come and visit some more Houses.

What was the biggest lesson you learned from developing Soho House and opening right before COVID? How has it impacted your strategy across Asia?

What I’d say is we have to take the positives from that moment that we had. We opened in a challenging time, but I think it gave the team here a really great starting block to be able to collaborate and meet the members. It was good for us to ease gently into the market. It was a new territory for us. Getting the team to understand the culture and the values of how we do things was a real positive as we came out the other side of COVID.

And I think from then, it’s gone from strength to strength. It wasn’t a bad way to enter into the city. Of course, I wouldn’t hope for it to come as we open again in other cities. (laughs) But the team has done a really great job in getting the House to where it is today, five years on.

What are you most excited to see from the new Houses in Tokyo, Sydney, Mumbai, and New Delhi?

The food, of course. (laughs) I mean, the Japanese food is going to be amazing and just working with the local team there to really make sure that the offering that we have is right. I think it’s exciting going into these new cultures, sensitising myself and the team to understand how we navigate through opening a new House. But also just seeing how the current members that we have in Asia will continue to collaborate with the creative markets in these new cities that we start entering into.

(Images: Soho House Hong Kong)