A nightclub modelled on an Alpine ski lodge is set to be Prince Harry’s new favourite hangout after its launch — right next to his Kensington Palace home — by two of his best friends.
Bodo’s Schloss has been created in a £1 million redevelopment beneath the Royal Garden Hotel and last night the Evening Standard got an exclusive first glimpse at the private launch party.
Gingham-clad waitresses and an Austrian brass band played at the club less than a minute’s walk from the palace, also home to the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
The DJ booth is a retro ski-lift gondola, reflecting the theme of an “old-fashioned disco reminiscent of an Austrian ski lodge”.
Harry and William’s close friends Thomas van Straubenzee and Tom “Skippy” Inskip teamed up with Nick House and Piers Adam, the duo behind Harry’s other favourite London hangouts, Mahiki and Whisky Mist, for the venture.
The club, which opens officially on Thursday next week, has two bars, an eating area and a dance floor and is rumoured to have a back door directly into the palace gardens, giving Harry an easy escape route home after a night on the signature Snow Angel and Vallée Blanche cocktails.
However, he will have to wait for his first taste because of his four-month deployment to Afghanistan as an Apache helicopter pilot.
Harry moved to Kensington Palace this year into what is jokily called the “royal bedsit”, near William and Kate’s Nottingham Cottage residence in the grounds.
