Prince Harry opened up about ‘Club H’ in his memoir Spare, describing it as ‘the perfect hideout for a teenager’, featuring a well-stocked drinks trolley and a huge sound system
As teenagers, Prince William and Prince Harry couldn’t really hit the town quite like their friends but they didn’t have to look too far when it came to having fun with their peers in private.
In fact, the brothers had a ready-made entertainment area inside their father’s home in Tetbury, Highgrove. Royal author Robert Lacey revealed in his 2020 book Battle of Brothers that Prince Charles allowed his sons to adapt a bomb-proof shelter in the cellar of the house into ‘Club H’, a dungeon disco scattered with scruffy sofas. It boasted a well-stocked bar and a state-of-the-art sound system – the perfect place for William and Harry to entertain their friends in the school holidays.
According to Lacey, “Club H turned Highgrove into quite the hot spot when Dad happened to be away”. He wrote: “In his absence, 16-year-old William — already a steady drinker — and his younger brother ‘relaxed’ intensively. Club H had been very much William’s inspiration, with his older friends largely setting the social pace for Harry. “If Prince Charles did happen to be at home, the two brothers and their friends could all pile out together to The Rattlebone Inn in the village of Sherston five miles away.”
Prince Harry, meanwhile, wrote about the party room in his tell-all memoir Spare. “I hid in the basement beneath Highgrove, usually with Willy. We called it Club H. Many assumed the H stood for Harry, but in fact it stood for Highgrove.” he wrote. Harry further described Club H as his sanctuary: “Club H was the perfect hideout for a teenager, but especially this teenager. When I wanted peace, Club H provided. When I wanted mischief, Club H was the safest place to act out. When I wanted solitude, what better than a bomb shelter in the middle of the British countryside?”
Club H “was windowless, but the brick walls, painted bone white, kept it from feeling claustrophobic. Also, we kitted out the space with nice pieces from various royal residences. Persian rug, red Moroccan sofas, wooden table, electric dartboard. We also put in a huge stereo system. It didn’t sound great, but it was loud. In a corner stood a drinks trolley…”
Harry continued: “To get down to its depths you went through a heavy white ground-level door, then down a steep flight of stone stairs, then groped your way along a damp stone floor, then descended three more stairs, then past several wine cellars, wherein Camilla kept her fanciest bottles, on past a freezer and several storerooms full of paintings, polo gear, and absurd gifts from foreign governments and potentates. (No one wanted them, but they couldn’t be regifted or donated, or thrown out, so they’d been carefully logged and sealed away.) Beyond that final storeroom were two green doors with little brass handles, and on the other side of those was Club H.”
