Rich List 2017
The Sunday Times Magazine • 103DAVID VINTINER FOR THE SUNDAY TIMES MAGAZINE
We’re re developing buildings, making them
usable for the new kinds of companies that want
to stay in London’s creative heart.”
True enough. But don’t the critics have a point? In
all the new developments there does not seem to be
as much space for venues that put on — oh, what’s the
right word? You know, shows of the, the ... “the lady
variety?” Fawn helpfully interjects. Well, yes.
India Rose insists there is still enough sex in Soho
to keep the stay-up-all-night crowd happy. “There’s a
lot of nudity at the Box nightclub. It’s the modern-day
version of the Revue bar. Have you been? You should.
On stage, they get their winkles out.” The Tranny Shack
will be back when Madame Jojo’s reopens, she adds
— winkles out or not.
I point out that on my walk to meet them in Soho
House, I hadn’t noticed many sex shops. The family got
out of the porn business, selling its Men Only , Club
International , Escort and Razzle magazines in 2008.
“There’s defi nitely not as many sex shops as there used
to be. It’s all going online and who can fi ght that?” IndiaRose concedes. “But some are still there. They stay open
late, so that if someone wants to buy a dildo in the
middle of the night, they can. People are about to hook
up with someone and think , ‘Oh, I need a sexy outfi t.’
People will never stop having sex. Sex sells. Full stop.
Exclamation mark!”
The two sisters have always been among the
wealthiest youngsters on the Rich List, but this year
they have not so much been overtaken as left out of
sight by their neighbour, the Duke of Westminster ,
whose family fortune is about 20 times theirs at more
than £9. 5bn. I tell India Rose that the duke is about the
same age as her and unmarried. She has not got hitched
to her boyfriend , Hugh Harris , guitarist in the Kooks
and father of their 10-month-old daughter, Saffi. Would
she consider hooking up with the duke? Soho meets
Westminster — the king of the toff s meets the queen
of tarts? “Well, I’m not married yet, as you say. No,
scrap that. Oh God!” she says. The duke does have a
girlfriend, I warn her. “Of course he does ,” she replies.
“Look how much he just inherited .” ■SISTER ACT
Fawn, left, and India
Rose aim to turn
Soho Estates into
a £1bn business