It’s Sheffield’s first private members club. Do we need it?

Dear readers – The Mulberry Club - an upmarket private members’ club built on “heritage, discretion and quality” - is set to open in a Grade II-listed former bank in the city centre sometime this month. It’s a beautiful building and renovations are underway. But is this city a private members club sort of place? According to founder Oliver Keane, it absolutely is: he claims there are already around a thousand people on the waiting list. “I want the feeling to be, finally, something like this is in Sheffield, you know, I feel like I’m in another city.”

While we’re not entirely on board with the idea of a Sheffield members club whose appeal is making you feel like you’re not in Sheffield, we had to see it for ourselves. That’s today’s story.

Your Tribune briefing 🗞️

🪳 The Moor Market will stay closed until tomorrow at the earliest after an infestation of German cockroaches was discovered. The market was forced to close late on Friday for a deep clean, and remained closed all weekend. Councillor Mark Rusling said on Monday the market would remain closed until at least Thursday while "extensive pest control, cleaning and monitoring work" continued. When BBC Sheffield spoke to shoppers outside the market they found people who had travelled from as far afield as Buxton (The Tribune also spoke to one couple who had come from Pontefract as it was the nearest fish market to them), while another explained she was "on a mission" to buy black pudding, tomatoes and sausages — the type you "can't get down south" — for her daughter, who lives in Guildford.

🏪 A popular international supermarket has been told it may be able to keep its licence to sell age-restricted goods, but only if a plan of action can be agreed with the council. As we reported last week, Ozmen International on London Road was threatened with losing its licence after it failed two "underage sales test purchases" in the space of two months. However, at a meeting of Sheffield council’s licensing sub-committee on Tuesday, owner Huseyin Ozmen was told they may be able to keep the licence providing he can come up with a plan that addresses issues to the satisfaction of Trading Standards, police and Safeguarding Children Partnership.

⚽ An inquest into the death of former Sheffield United Women’s team player Maddy Cusack has heard she was called a "psycho" by former team manager Jonathan Morgan. Cusack, 27, died after being found unconscious at her family home in Derbyshire on 20 September 2023. Chesterfield Coroner's Court heard on Tuesday that Morgan had also made comments about Cusack's weight, and her relationship with her teammate Grace Riglar. Giving evidence at the inquest, Riglar said Cusack found it uncomfortable when Morgan would call her "Mrs Cusack", especially in front of other players. Our 2024 piece on Maddy Cusack is here. The inquest continues.

🏳️‍🌈 This evening, join Sheffield Museums at the Graves Gallery for a thought-provoking conversation about their current exhibition Revolution, Revelation, Reinforcement: Queer Legacies in Sheffield's Art Collection. Exhibition curator Jon Sleigh will be in conversation with Sheffield-based journalist Alim Kheraj (who wrote our recent piece about the exhibition here). The free hour-long talk will take place in the Carpenter Room and will begin at 6pm.

It’s Sheffield’s first private members club. Do we need it?

By Mollie Simpson, with additional reporting by Victoria Munro

It’s not every day that you first hear about a new nightlife spot on LinkedIn. But Oliver Keane isn’t most people. The Mulberry Club, he claims in a post on the business-networking site, will be continuing the legacy of Irish working men’s clubs. "They established something in the north that went deeper than anyone gave them credit for at the time[...] I didn't know any of that as a kid sitting in the Irish Club after Mass. I just knew it felt like somewhere. That's what we're trying to build. That is The Mulberry Club," he writes. I’m intrigued by this — I’m aware working men’s clubs were a good way of building community fast in industrial areas.

But when I head to the Mulberry Club’s website, instead of blue-collar workers propping up a bar, I see the ivory back of an evening-gown-clad brunette who wouldn’t look out of place on the cover of a Mills & Boons novel. She’s heading into a room draped in red curtains and other guests in formal wear – a long dress, a suit – are walking a little ahead of her. Scroll down and beneath the header "Cultivated for Conversation", I learn that "The Mulberry Club is a private members’ house taking shape in Sheffield’s Arts Quarter. Built on heritage, discretion and quality, the House is being prepared carefully ahead of its opening this Summer."

When I reach out to Keane, I learn that the website incarnation of the club is the correct one. He’s renovating a Grade-II listed former bank on George Street into an upmarket private members’ club. (While he’s referenced the tradition of Irish working men’s clubs, arguably he’s tapping into an inherently English tradition: that of Soho House and its imitators.) He tells me he’s spent the last three months doing up the former bank and that the Mulberry Club is keeping him up at night. This isn’t about nerves, but because he keeps experiencing random bursts of excitement, he insists. "I’m literally biting my fingernails off at the moment," he says. I’ve come to meet him in the hopes of figuring it out for myself. Is Keane’s optimism misplaced or is he right to be excited – will his club be the most enormous success?