That was in 2000 - and she and her then-husband decided to stay in the capital; Bolger was soon a young mum with three kids under five. "That's when I began to wonder why a nice place did not exist for parents. Soho House was getting traction, as were lots of celebrity restaurants, but all parents' offerings were an afterthought."
Bolger would have her friends with kids over to her flat in Kensington, and do activities with them all. "It was just a way to keep everyone entertained and stop us going mad with the craziness of parenting. Then I decided that people might actually pay for something like this, so in 2006 managed to convince a friend's dad to rent me a garage off Gloucester Road, I got some Farrow and Ball paint and started a little club lounge with classes for mums and kids."
That former garage grew into Maggie & Rose, which had grown into two family members' clubs in Chiswick and Kensington and a plan for expansion in Asia, when Bolger decided to leave the business in 2019, with a pay-off and a 12-month no-compete deal.
She left, Bolger adds, "because we had done a deal with a PLC in China, they wanted to take the brand in a very different direction, and I decided I had to prioritise my health and my family [rather than] opening mass sites in China. It was a difficult decision."
This story is from the September 04, 2023 edition of Evening Standard.
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This story is from the September 04, 2023 edition of Evening Standard.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
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