'These walls have seen many things': Annabel’s artefacts go under hammer

Celebrities and minor royals are expected to go head to head at Christie’s auction house on Tuesday in the hope of securing a piece of memorabilia from Annabel’s, the Mayfair nightclub and playground of the rich and famous, which has closed its doors after more than half a century.

Liz Hurley has her sights on the private members club’s red velvet sofa (guide price £2,000-£4,000), on which she, Naomi Campbell and Kate Moss have all been famously photographed.

The pop star Rita Ora has said she is planning to bid for the 130cm tall carved wooden Buddha (£10,000-£20,000) that has gazed upon many famous faces in the club, including Frank Sinatra, John Wayne, Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, Leonardo DiCaprio, Princess Diana and even the Queen. “I can only imagine what that Buddha has seen over the years,” Ora said.

The BBC Radio 1 DJ Nick Grimshaw, another Annabel’s regular, wants to bid for the oak planks of the club’s dance floor (£300-£500), saying that one of the most memorable nights of his life was spent “watching Grace Jones hula-hoop across it”.

Orlando Rock, the chairman of Christie’s who will oversee the 265-lot Annabel’s sale in the auction house’s St James’s showroom, said several other famous faces had visited Annabel’s basement club on Berkeley Square to inspect lots for potential bids.

“We’ve been fairly inundated with bidders,” Rock said. “There’s a huge amount of nostalgic interest. Everyone has a story, these walls have seen so many things, and a lot of people have specific memories. Be it the sofa where they got engaged, or something else.”

Rock said more than 2,000 people have traipsed down the steps and into Annabel’s basement at 44 Berkeley Square over the past week to inspect the lots in situ. “I feel like I’ve lived in a nightclub for a week,” he said. “Everything is for sale,” he added, from caricatures by HM Bateman to works by painters Glyn Philpot and William Orpen to table lamps, cutlery and even the club’s urinals (£200-£300).

Annabel’s was opened in 1963 by Mark Birley, a young entrepreneur who named it after his then-wife Lady Annabel Vane-Tempest-Stewart. Lady Annabel, who went on to marry Sir James Goldsmith, was initially annoyed that Birley had named the club – which was created in a converted coal cellar beneath a casino – after her.

However, it was an immediate hit with aristocracy and film stars, leading Lady Annabel to change her mind. “Now I look back on his decision with pride and consider it the most tremendous compliment he could ever have paid me,” she said in her memoirs.

The Queen visited Annabel’s in 2003 and ordered a gin martini with no lemon, which then-head barman Abderrazat Mohammed Ghannam said was his “greatest honour” to serve.

Lady Gaga was an Annabel’s regular when in London and performed her hit track Poker Face in the club. Tina Turner and Bryan Ferry have also taken to the stage over the years.

The Beatles, however, were turned away by the club’s doormen for failing to adhere to the club’s dress code. Rumour had it that George Harrison had refused to wear a tie, but Birley said: “No, absolutely not. That is complete rubbish; it’s because they weren’t wearing shoes!”

Still the strict dress code – which was only recently relaxed to allow [non-gym going] smart trainers – has also caught out Eric Clapton, the fashion designer Patrick Cox, and the conservationist Damian Aspinall, who were all refused entry.

In 1986, the Princess Diana and Sarah Ferguson gained entry dressed as policewomen, after failing to infiltrate Prince Andrew’s stag do. “For a moment it must have seemed like a police raid, then guests obviously decided they were ‘kiss-o-gram’ girls,” a doorman recalled of Diana’s visit. “One of the four [in their party] apologised for the fact that there were so many of them and promised, ‘we’ll be leaving soon’. They were perfectly disguised and certainly had us fooled.”

The actror Goldie Hawn, another regular, described Annabel’s as an “extraordinarily designed and conceived place … yet you felt like you could put your feet up”.

Birley sold Annabel’s to the multimillionaire restaurateur Richard Caring as part of a £90m deal in 2007. Caring closed Birley’s Annabel’s at 44 Berkeley Square in February and moved the club two doors down to number 46, where Annabel’s now occupies all 26,000 sq ft of the Grade I-listed Georgian mansion. Tuesday’s sale at Christie’s will be live-streamed in the new Annabel’s.

Caring will collect the proceeds from all but two lots in the auction. Caring’s charity will benefit from the sale of two photograph lots, which are estimated to sell for a total of £10,000-£16,000.

The remaining 263 lots are expected to raise almost £1m, which Caring will use to “purchase further extraordinary works of art for the new Annabel’s and other restaurants for thousands to enjoy”.