Exclusive cotswolds club Soho Farmhouse beloved by celebrity A-listers including the Beckhams and Meghan Markle applies for permission to erect marquee for outdoor weddings and celebrations

A private members club beloved by A-list celebrities has applied for permission to erect a marquee for outdoor weddings and other celebrations.

Soho Farmhouse in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, is located on the same road as The Beckhams’ home and hosted Meghan Markle‘s hen party.

According to planning documents lodged with West Oxfordshire District Council, when the club at Great Tew opened to members and guests in 2015, the approved development included an events facility known as the ‘Barwell Barn’.

The barn would include a bar, a substantial kitchen, indoor and outdoor cloakrooms and a large level lawn area.

The new marquee ‘will not result in any change in terms of the number of events held, the number of guests attending those events and the amount of traffic generated’

The barn would include a bar, a substantial kitchen, indoor and outdoor cloakrooms and a large level lawn area

Meghan Markle had her hen do at the exclusive member’s club and Prince Harry also frequents

It was designed to host private events such as weddings, as well as corporate and public events.

But it has proved to be disruptive to have a weekly delivery, erection and dismantling of a series of marquees to suit each event.

A planning statement says: ‘Access to the marquee lawn is via Tracey Lane and a narrow track through the site, and the movement of large vehicles each week, together with associated vans and cars used by the marquee team is disruptive, especially to what is essentially a car-free site.’

The new marquee ‘will not result in any change in terms of the number of events held, the number of guests attending those events and the amount of traffic generated’.

Also, the exclusive club trialled a ‘higher quality ‘Orangery’ structure’ last summer and it ‘was considered to be a significant improvement on the traditional canvas marquee both in terms of appearance and practicality’, documents add.

Soho Farmhouse in Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire, is located on the same road as The Beckhams’ home

A similar structure will be required for an event taking place on August 25 and on New Year’s Eve and it is also expected that it will be used for other special events held every year such as Halloween, Farm Fireworks on bonfire night, and a Christmas Carol Concert plus occasional use for the usual private and corporate events.

The planning statement says that for 2024, a a contract has been agreed to hire ‘an innovative new marquee-like structure’ of a post and beam frame with ‘glazed gable walls’ set back from the overhanging pitched canvas roof.

It will be erected on the Barwell Barn lawn covering 30 by 24 metres with a maximum height of 10.5 metres.

Soho Farmhouse has been described as a Butlins for toffs and attracts some of the most famous faces in Britain.

There are surfboard yoga sessions in the swimming pool, a Japanese grill house serving seared raw fish salads and soft-shell crabs, a lifestyle shop that sells £290 boots and a bar that stays open until the last customer leaves — and on at least one occasion that person was Prince Harry.

The estate, complete with man-made lakes, stables and an ironically ironic crazy golf course, sits within the Cotswolds’ golden triangle: a sought-after area between Chipping Norton, Burford and Stow that is home to the so-called Chipping Norton set of celebrities and politicians.

David and Samantha Cameron went to the Farmhouse opening party in 2015, drinking cocktails and dancing around the fire pits to crooner Paolo Nutini.