Rosa Monckton leans across a table to proudly show a video on her phone. "I'm pulling a pint of cider," she explains triumphantly during tea in the House of Lords' stunning Cholmondeley Room overlooking the Thames. "It's such a good feeling." Baroness Monckton of Dallington Forest, businesswoman, campaigner and close friend of the late Diana, Princess of Wales, is clearly delighted to have picked up this new skill, which is thanks to her latest venture, The North Star pub in Brighton.
While many pubs up and down the country are closing, Rosa, who carved out a successful career at the jewellers Tiffany & Co and Asprey & Garrard, is bucking the trend by adding the establishment to a portfolio of coffee shops run by her charity, Team Domenica, which she set up in 2016.
At The North Star's festive opening night, guests included Team Domenica's newest patron, Marisa Abela, the actress who played the singer Amy Winehouse in the biopic Back to Black. "When I first met Rosa a few years ago, I was inspired by her ability to champion a cause that was so close to her heart," she said. "And then when I met [her daughter] Domenica, I was even more inspired by [her]. I would be here every single day if I thought I would be here with [her]." She was joined by fellow patron Nigella Lawson, Rosa’s sister-in-law.
"Nigella is very supportive and a wonderful aunt to my daughters," says Rosa, who is married to the celebrity chef's brother, the journalist Dominic Lawson. "She cooks with Domenica and her friend when she comes to stay. But she doesn't take over the kitchen at Christmas. I wish she would!"
Rosa’s 30-year-old daughter is the inspiration behind The North Star, a pub where many of the staff hired by Team Domenica have autism or learning disabilities. Upon finishing a catering course for students with learning disabilities at Brighton MET, Domenica, who has Down's syndrome, was told that there were no jobs available for people with her condition. Indeed, according to the NHS, while there are 1.3 million people with learning disabilities in England, fewer than 5 per cent are in paid employment.
This galvanised Rosa to set up the charity, which aims to train these students and to support them into paid work placements. Since the scheme was launched, 80 per cent of its students have found work through the charity's supported internship programme – including Domenica, who now boasts two jobs, working at The Grand Brighton Hotel and soon at The North Star. "It is about being part of a team and a community like everyone else. Domenica wants to be included," Rosa says.
"I'm really thrilled to be a patron of Team Domenica," Nigella tells us. "Rosa is an incredible powerhouse, and realised that something needed to get done and no one else was going to do it, so she bloody well got on and did it herself."
Rosa has seen firsthand how having a job and a purpose can change the life of a child with learning disabilities. “They get so much more confident,” she says. It took six months, but now Domenica, who Rosa says is "very shy", can walk to work. "I asked, 'How did it make her feel?' One word came back. It was ‘freedom’ and that made me cry."
The word resonated for another reason, too. "The only other time someone said that word ‘freedom’ to me was Diana, when we went to Bali," Rosa says of the private holiday she took in 1993 to Amanwana on Moyo Island in Indonesia with the late Princess, Rosa's close friend and Domenica's godmother.
At the time of their secret girls' trip, Diana had separated from but was still married to Prince Charles, causing a frenzy of media attention. One morning, Diana and Rosa headed to the beach together. "We walked for three hours and she said: 'Rosa, I haven't done this since I was engaged.’ You think ‘how terrible’. As soon as Domenica sent me that word, it was a real echo to those days."
Christmas with Princess Diana
Looking back to this time of year, she remembers turning on the Christmas lights in Bond Street alongside Diana. "I was chairman of the Bond Street Association. I asked her to do it and she said: 'We need a little person as well, I don’t want it to just be me.' That was her. So I marshalled out my godson, Oliver Holcroft. She understood how to get into a child's mind and knew what was important. Domenica was two when she died ,so she has no memory of her. But, at the foot of her bed, she has a beautiful black and white dog that Diana got her from Italy. You think it is a real dog every time you go in there.
"I miss her hugely. If someone is worth loving, they are worth remembering and they are always in your heart. She would be such a champion of Domenica and so proud of all she has achieved."
While Rosa is delighted at Domenica's sense of freedom, the reality is that her daughter's independence will always be limited. "My wish for her is that she be as independent as she can possibly be while being safe and that she participates as much as possible in whatever she wants to do."
In the future, Rosa plans to roll out a series of North Star pubs nationwide, starting in London. "It's [about] shared humanity and some people need more support and more help than others. I hope everyone will come to The North Star and take away a little bit of humanity."
To find out more about The North Star, visit teamdomenica.com