London start-ups to get new home at trendy Zetter Hotel in Clerkenwell

Base: Club Zetter will have office and lounge space where companies can work

Zetter Hotel Clerkenwell

Joanna Hodgson7 January 2016

Over 100 business start-ups could soon work in a new hipster Clerkenwell membership club being opened by an entrepreneur who was headhunted at age 23 by Richard Branson.

James Layfield, the chief executive of workspace provider Central Working, said they will open Club Zetter next month at the Zetter Hotel Clerkenwell in partnership with the hotel's owner.

There will be office and lounge space where companies can work, share ideas and bring clients.

Layfield said the area is "one of London's fastest growing entrepreneurial hotspots".

Since Layfield launched the firm in 2011, the firm has opened four London venues.

He was Branson's youngest-ever managing director when he ran social networking site Virgin Student in 2003-2005.

Last year he was made a tech ambassador for the mayor of London Boris Johnson.

Michael Benyan, partner at the Zetter Group said: “We know how to create memorable, luxurious spaces, how to look after our guests and to provide them with the best possible fuel for their day so we are looking forward to extending the Zetter approach to hospitality to our club members and the Central Working network.”