Kitts Chelsea

Kitts interior shot

CHELSEA

KITTS

VENUES, FEBRUARY 2007, COMMENTS

For a discerning postcode, Chelsea has its fair share of disreputable nightspots. Despite the number of luxury shopping brands migrating to the area, more sophisticated late night offerings have traditionally been rooted in the West End. The time is ripe for a new demographic of Chelsea nightclub - and the 160 capacity Kitts, located in Sloane Square, aims to be just that. “A lot of luxury brands are opening in Chelsea, such as Paul and Joe and Tiffanys, whilst most of Chelsea’s nightclubs scrimp and save,” says Kitts’ owner Duncan Stirling. “We’re aiming at a smarter, older clientele. People have expressed surprise that we wouldn’t be out of place in the West End,” he adds.

To differentiate the venue further, Stirling and business partner Charlie Gilkes are positioning Kitts at an over 25-year-old market. Something of a challenge, when both directors are aged 25 and under. But the pair have amassed a CV in events organising that belies their youth. Duncan’s clients include Naomi Campbell and Louis Vuitton, whilst Charlie’s recent ball for the jewellers Boodles counted Princes William and Harry amongst its guest list. And experience aside, the pair believe nightclub ownership is a young man’s game. “There’s nothing worse than some old fart dictating what a young market wants,” says Duncan. “We’re very aware that at some point we will be too old to do nightclubs successfully, and we’ll have to move on to restaurants or something if we want to stay in the hospitality industry,” he adds.

The best way to ascertain what your clientele wants is to hear it from the horse’s mouth - a philosophy that is key to the running of Kitts. “It’s all about listening. We’re not just going to barge in and say, “It’s our way or the highway”. We’re not doing this for our benefit, we’re doing it for the customer,” says Charlie. He and Duncan believe that, whilst they may not have experience of running a nightclub, they understand their clientele better than most because they have extensive experience of delivering events for them. “It is often the trend for clubs to become an extension of the manger’s lifestyle. They have no idea how to fill the space. We’re closer to the consumer,” says Duncan.

The most important aspect of this is to offer unrivalled customer service - something that Stirling and Gilkes believe is lacking in the nightclub industry. “At a restaurant or a shop the attitude is that the customer is always right. For some reason nightclubs don’t adhere to the same philosophy. I don’t know if it’s because they open later than everyone else that they think they can get away with being brash and abrasive. We wanted to create a venue without any ego,” says Charlie. He recalls how a Kitts waitress spilt a drop of tonic on a customer’s jacket. “Our reaction was to apologise to the woman, pour her a glass of champagne and offer to have it dry cleaned. That woman repeated to everyone what fantastic service she’d received,” he says.

Despite their experience in events organisation, Stirling and Gilkes still needed advice when it came to the more technical task of equipping their venue. And who better to turn to than pro audio design consultant and Allen & Heath co-founder Andrew Stirling? Particularly when he happens to be Duncan’s dad. Stirling senior proved to be an invaluable asset, providing an insight into nightclub operation that neither Stirling nor Gilkes had foreseen. “I’ve taken my dad to the best nightclubs in the world and he’s gone, “Son, I can’t fault the décor, but the sound is crap. It’s such a shame because otherwise this would be a great club.” It’s something I hadn’t thought about. I was quite fickle, concentrating on the design and the people. It was very interesting to hear his point of view,” says Stirling.

Thus the two men mounted a reconnaisance mission of the London club scene, before deciding on three proprietary sound reinforcement systems that they wanted to audition.

“We were looking for a small, directional speaker system which would squirt a lot of energy into a small space,” said Andrew. “The NEXO PS8’s got the vote because they produce a huge amount of energy out of a small box. The NEXO LS-400 12in subs were also small and front-loaded so we knew they would be fairly directional.” Four of the full range speakers and a pair of the subwoofers were specified. And Stirling Audio extended their shopping list with NEXO’s UK distributors Fuzion plc to include a pair of Camco Tecton 24.4’s and 32.4 amplifier, with t&m 8 loudspeaker for DJ monitor duties, powered by a t&m SA400E amplifier.

At the same time, Andrew knew he also had to avoid sound spillage that would affect the residents of the Sloane Square hotel, in whose basement the club sits. His solution was to bring in Andy Munro of Munro Associates to lead-soundproof the ceiling and deal with other containment issues. The NEXO PS-8’s are mounted on rubber shock absorbers to cut down the transmission and the LS-400’s are raised off the floor on spikes. Highly specified with Technics, Pioneer and Allen & Heath playback components, the DJ booth is isolated by being floated on a concrete plinth.

Optimised by the dedicated NEXO PS-8TD analogue processor, the sound is distributed by an Allen & Heath zoning mixer, while Stirling have introduced “a bit of black magic” in the form of the Aphex 204 Aural Exciter and Optical Big Bottom to enhance the detail and clarity of the sound.The installation was carried out by another of Stirling’s eminent peers from the studio world, Ian Davidson of Technical Earth.

For the design of the venue, Stirling and Gilkes called upon interior designer Ed Godrich, whose clients include David Coulthard and Anita Roddick. Godrich had been dying to get his teeth into a nightclub venture and already had a wealth of ideas to bring to the project. But Stirling and Gilkes were careful to govern these with a careful operational eye. “Ed’s the designer, but I’m the operations manger. He had ideas that we had to be realistic about. Certain fabrics couldn’t take the wear or tear. So he had to put his thinking hat on,” says Stirling. They insisted on a smaller dancefloor, more seating and an operations room for table service so that waiters and bar staff don’t have to jostle for space. “We knew that seating, not dance space, makes you money. And whilst Ed wasn’t keen on losing space to the operations area, we knew it was imperative if we wanted table service,” he adds.

The result is a scheme that is functional and stylish. Godrich used a selection of designers to create one-off installations under his direction. A hand-worked light box depicts party, festival and clubbing scenes, created by drilling pinholes into a lacquered panel of wood. This is lit from behind using LEDs supplied by The Light Corporation. The dancefloor sparkles as disco lights reflect off silver flakes set into the specialist resin floor. Kitts’ structural columns are treated to give them an organic, rock-like texture, which is coated in durable aluminium leaf. The nose of the bar and the DJ booth have also been finished with a recently developed liquid metal, which dries to an aged bronze effect. Luxurious, discreet booths are located along the other three walls, offset by cubic light box tables. All of this is complemented by The Lighting Corporation’s flexible lighting scheme, which allows for an infinite variation of both light intensity and colour to facilitate ever-changing moods within the venue.

The overriding impression with Kitts is that this is a highly polished project, combining passion, dedicated research and hard work. “This is a business, not a lifestyle choice. We don’t drink, take drugs or fool around with girls. We’re happy to get our hands dirty. If it’s busy at the bar we’ll jump in and help. If an amp blows, we’ll try and fix it,” says Duncan. And the pair are loving every minute of it. “People from all walks of life congregate in our venue. There’s such a fantastic mix of interesting people. That gives me a real buzz.”

Words: Sara Oldham
Images: Jim Ellam

From: February 2007 Issue

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