5 Hertford Street opened in June 2012 with a launch party attended by Mick Jagger, Kate Moss, and Daphne Guinness.
[8] In November 2017, Avenue reported that Birley was close to finalising a deal to start work on a new club, akin to 5HS but with bedrooms for members, near Union Square, Manhattan.
Over the following 30 years, he has gradually expanded the concept – sandwiches made in front of the customer from fresh ingredients – into a successful chain which now comprises 15 outlets in the City of London and Canary Wharf.
Heavily influenced by Edward Goldsmith, his step-father’s brother and the founder of The Ecologist, Birley has always maintained a keen interest in environmental matters.
In 2002, he set up Envirotrade,[14] a project assisting small farmers in Mozambique through reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD) and agroforestry by generating carbon credits through which they could earn a better living wage.
[18] The BBC trust stated in its final report in 2011 that "there was no suggestion that the ACLT, Envirotrade or any personnel connected to the organisations had acted improperly".
In 2006 Birley was dismissed from his position by his father, after a family row following his hiring of a private investigator to do a background check on his sister’s new boyfriend.
[citation needed] In 1986 his brother Rupert was presumed drowned in mysterious circumstances whilst working in Togo, but his body was never recovered.