Time to party as City shakes off hangover

The exclusive Whisky Mist club in London's Mayfair.

As workers up and down Britain sat at home last week worrying about whether they would still have a job in a month's time, a raucous crowd of hedge fund managers and investment bankers at the Whisky Mist nightclub in plush Mayfair pulled yet more vodka out of their huge ice bucket and called for the waiter to bring another bottle of Dom Perignon.

A year ago, it looked as though the City of London's big spenders had finally been humbled. Blamed for the worst recession since World War II, many workers in the City - the square-mile old city of London which is now the British capital's financial district - stopped flashing the cash in fear of public outcry, and the bars of the Square Mile, as it is known, fell silent.

However, as the seeds of economic recovery sprout, it appears that ostentation is back.

Bankers who just a few months ago were said to be struggling to pay their children's school fees were late last week enjoying watching the scantily clad dancers in Whisky Mist's VIP room.

As City workers once again prepare for corporate excess, and investment banks such as Goldman Sachs get ready to pay record bonuses, new bars, restaurants and nightclubs are springing up to feed demand.

Nick House, who owns Whisky Mist and Prince Harry's favourite nightclub, Mahiki, plans to open a high-end Polynesian-themed "tiki" bar in the City next month. He hopes that exotic drinks such as Dead Man's Chest, brought to your table by "a full-blown voodoo funeral procession", will persuade City workers to part with their cash.

House is just one of the businessmen taking advantage of the current attractive rents in the City and the resurgence in conspicuous consumption.

In September, Simon Parker Bowles and two associates opened a sister restaurant to the long-established Green's of St James'. Tucked away in the former head offices of Lloyds Bank, the new Green's is packing out both its bar and restaurant every day.

What's more, as Christmas approaches, Green's, alongside many other City haunts, is getting lots of bookings for office parties. This is a stark contrast to the situation last year, when banks battened down the hatches in the face of angry public reaction.

Separately, as the City starts to party again, doctors are reporting that cocaine use is on the rise.

Don Serratt, chief executive of the Life Works rehabilitation centre, said he had witnessed a 25 per cent increase in the number of people from the City seeking treatment for alcohol and cocaine abuse in the past few months.

"It has a lot to do with the current economic environment," said Serratt. "Either they have been made redundant or [they have] fears around being made redundant or fears around lowered income because many of these people have high personal overheads."

- OBSERVER