A year after the biggest project of his business career opened, Simon Thomas reflected last night on the first birthday of his Hippodrome Casino in London’s Leicester Square.
Simon, with his wife, Fiona, welcomed 100 specially-invited guests to a quiet celebration of the anniversary, while his father and partner, Jimmy, was on the other side of the world, joining industry icon Lennie Ainsworth in the celebration of his 90th birthday in Sydney.
One year on, and 1.2 million guests later, Simon had no real regrets about the decision to open a casino in one of London’s most intensive tourist venues. “No regrets… But I wish I had realised just what the level of work would be to get it open! I also wish that I hadn’t worried about the project so much – it has been such a natural fit here.”
Would he do it again? “I said when we opened Cricklewood (the country’s largest bingo club) that I wouldn’t undertake a project of those dimensions again. Then we had the chance to take over the Hippodrome and open a casino!” Well… Would he do it again? “Perhaps. If the right opportunity came along."
The Hippodrome has its main entrance on Leicester Square but has an unobtrusive back entrance opening into Little Newport Street, directly into the heart of Chinatown. The Chinese community provide one-third of the turnover of the casino – and that back entrance supplies 25 per cent of the guests.
Most of the guests at the first birthday celebration were other notable business owners from the surrounding area plus a smattering of industry friends and suppliers.
The first year of the Hippodrome saw turnover of £175m and revenues of £40m. The attendance has been double those forecast by the Thomas family when they opened on July 13, 2012. The location is a former theatre which cost £40m to renovate over four floors and employs 600 people.
Still busily working on plans, Simon said that he was about to install some high-tech new lighting systems to ‘bring alive’ a few quieter corners of the location.
