Here's a good one. Spy hears that various brokers and their hedge fund and bank clients headed to a recent stag do at the Belfry hotel for golf, and everything else you can imagine City types get up to on a stag.
But half cancelled after finding out that police and sniffer dogs were apparently making surprise visits after its refurbishment a few months ago. Also the “ladies” that all seemed to be single and looking for a man for the night are no longer welcome. With the entertainment curtailed, one bookie quipped “for that reason, 50% are out”.
The Belfry says it hasn’t had police raids but uses a drug hound on a Saturday night outside the BelAir Nightclub, separate to the hotel. It also has a “zero tolerance policy when it comes to drugs or inappropriate behaviour on our property”. Enough to put off most City boys.
* Relief as HSBC reveals that “FP” — its Twitter account worker who accidentally leaked the Apple Pay launch date — hasn’t been sacked or disciplined. Maybe there is a banker with a soul out there. Good job the tweeter didn’t work for Apple, otherwise they no doubt would be out the door at the notoriously prickly corporation.
Burberry chief checks out afternoon tea
Where to catch Burberry chief executive Christopher Bailey, who always leaves speaking to the business press to chief financial officer Carol Fairweather?
City Spy nabbed Bailey after the group’s annual general meeting to find out where the design guru can be located when he is not by the runways.
He must have a penchant for afternoon tea — the darling of the fashion world revealed that he had twice visited Burberry’s new cafe Thomas’s on Regent Street for a pit stop in the space of a week. We’ll see you there.
