It was just after 6 p.m. on Saturday night on the easternmost platform of London Victoria Station. Commuters wheeled their suitcases home after a long week at the office, and tourists surged towards the underground entrances to catch their West End shows.
But if you looked a little closer, you would have spotted an unlikely cast of characters boarding the 6:30 p.m. train at platform two. Was that Roger and Mirka Federer strolling arm-in-arm over to the carriage? Tom Ford and Stella McCartney, bobbing and weaving through the commuter crowds to climb aboard? Emma Corrin clinking glasses with Alexa Chung behind a window? Yes, in fact, it was.
A glittering crowd had descended to travel on Celia, the new private dining and events carriage on the Belmond British Pullman train—invited by its designers, Baz Luhrmann and Catherine Martin, and the night’s co-host, Vogue’s global editorial director, Anna Wintour. (All of this just a few days after the 2026 Met Gala, which Luhrmann and Martin too had a hand in bringing to life.)
If there was any sense of party fatigue, though, you wouldn’t have guessed it. The night began with cocktails in the Celia car—where Martin herself was stationed behind the bar in a marabou-sleeved Prada two-piece, cheerfully pouring Champagne into Waterford crystal coupés—before guests dispersed across several carriages to enjoy dinner of an Isle of Wight tomato tart and beef Wellington. The picture-postcard landscapes of the Kent Downs, meanwhile, unfurled behind the windows. Luhrmann, in a Bode suit with braided lapels, swanned up and down the train throughout the night, encouraging everyone to eat, drink, and be merry.
After dessert was served, everyone returned to Celia for espresso martinis and an hour or two of dancing to disco classics under the carriage’s pastel-lit ceilings. The majority of guests were then bundled into a fleet of vintage cars to head over to Mark’s Club on Berkeley Square, ready for the night to continue into the early hours. The recurring question over nightcaps at Mark’s: When would everyone be invited to ride with Celia again? Full steam ahead.
