We place butlers in British households where the standards are high. If you’re looking to hire a butler in the UK, and you need someone who already knows how a well-run home works, we can help.
Morgan & Mallet is a butler agency with a UK office in Mayfair, London. We have over 2,500 butler profiles in our database.
Our butlers average seven years of experience, and about 14% of our global butler profiles are UK-based, which makes it our deepest market.
We can place butlers across the UK
Our butler staffing services are nationwide.
10+ years of experience
Benefit from our 10+ years as a butler recruitment agency in the UK. Our experienced recruiters truly understand how to hire a a butler who has the right experience for you.
96%
Placement Success Rate
Industry-leading success rate in matching families with compatible household staff in the UK.
Tailored to you
We strive to get our placements right and we do this by making sure the butler you hire from us is exactly right for you.
What Does a Butler Do in a British Household?
It depends on your home.
In a formal household, your butler manages silver service, table setting, wine selection and cellar management, and runs a team of housekeepers and kitchen staff.
They deal with wardrobe care and valet duties for the principal too.
In a more modern family, the same person might be coordinating school runs, sorting out the smart home system, and booking travel across different time zones.
They also manage household budgets, track spending, and deal with suppliers.
What stays the same in most UK roles is this:
Running the staff
Most of our London butlers work in homes with other staff. They’re the person who makes sure the housekeeper, chef, nanny, and driver all work together properly.
Looking after more than one property. A lot of UK families split time between London and the country. Your butler keeps both homes running.
Entertaining
Formal dinners for 30, as well as relaxed family suppers. Dealing with weekend house guests. Your butler does all of it.
Privacy
From our Annual Salary Report, staff who keep strict confidentiality earn 15 to 20% more.
In UHNW British households where media attention is a real problem, NDAs are standard and discretion is worth real money.
Laurine Mallet, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet, sees this every day:
“In this industry, few people understand discretion. People think discretion is ‘I’m not going to listen to my boss’s phone conversation.’ But that’s not discretion. Discretion is keeping everything to yourself. Your reactions. Your mouth. Your body. Everything.”
How much do butlers earn in the UK?
From our 2025/26 Household Staff Annual Report, UK butler salaries go from £50,000 to £100,000 a year.
That puts the UK fourth globally, behind the USA ($90,000 to $180,000), Switzerland, and Monaco.
London butlers earn towards the top of that range. Outside London, live-in roles usually offer a lower base salary plus accommodation, meals, and sometimes a vehicle.
All salary data from our 2025/26 Household Staff Annual Report.
Experience Level | Annual Salary (GBP) |
|---|---|
Mid-level (3-7 years) | £50,000-£60,000 |
Senior (7+ years) | £60,000 – £80,000 |
Elite (10+ years, specialised) | £80,000 – £100,000 |
What Hours Does a Butler Work in the UK?
Most butlers work five or five and a half days a week, usually 10 to 12 hours a day. That changes depending on your household.
If you entertain a lot or travel regularly, your butler’s schedule will flex around that.
In country estates where the family is only there at weekends, the butler might work a different pattern during the week, managing the property and staff, then shifting into formal service mode on Friday evening.
We sort out the details during the hiring process and make sure both sides are clear on what the week actually looks like before anyone starts.
Where our UK butlers work
London
About a third of our UK butler profiles are based in London. We place butlers in Mayfair, Belgravia, Knightsbridge, Kensington, and across central London.
London households are often international. The family might come from different cultural backgrounds, entertain guests from all over the world, and own properties in several countries. Your butler needs to be comfortable with all of that.
A lot of our London-based butlers have worked in royal households, embassies, or five-star hotels before going into private service.
Country Estates
Surrey, Buckinghamshire, Oxfordshire, the Cotswolds. These roles are different from London.
The properties are bigger. Grounds, outbuildings, gardens, staff cottages. Your butler manages all of it, and runs things on their own when the family is in London during the week.
Live-in is standard for country roles. Most families expect the butler to look after the house Monday to Thursday and get everything ready for when they arrive on Friday.
Scotland and regional cities
Edinburgh is similar to London in what clients expect.
Highland estates need someone who can manage shooting weekends and work with gamekeepers.
Manchester, Birmingham, and Leeds are growing markets.
How We Recruit Butlers for UK Households
Morgan Richez worked as a butler in London before starting Morgan & Mallet. Laurine Mallet worked as a nanny.
They started the agency in the UK in 2015 because they’d seen from the inside what makes a placement work and what makes it fall apart. We know what good looks like in a British household because we’ve lived it.
A lot of our British clients have had butlers before. Some grew up in homes with household staff. When they hire a butler, they can tell straight away whether someone knows the role or is bluffing it.
Laurine Mallet: “It’s not because you worked as a butler for a president that you have soft skills. You can pretend to have soft skills, but it’s not part of your personality.”
Here’s how the process works:
We start by understanding your household
We ask 30+ detailed questions. For UK clients, we go more into service style.
Do you use formal address or first names?
Silver service or family-style meals?
One London family only realised they needed a butler with specialist knowledge of Japanese art after we talked through how they entertain.
We search our database
When a role needs something our UK network can't provide, we look internationally across our eight offices.
Morgan Richez, co-founder of Morgan & Mallet: "Our clients are international, but our candidates are too. You have a lot of travelling butlers. They can work in France and next time it will be on a yacht based in the Bahamas."
Every candidate is interviewed and checked
90 minute interviews.
Reference checks with former employers.
Criminal background screening. DBS checks.
If someone says they trained at a recognised school like the British Butler Institute or Ivor Spencer, we check with the school directly.
Laurine describes the best candidate she ever met:
"He worked for French presidents as a butler. The most incredible candidate I've ever met, in etiquette, soft skills."
"He was so kind, so gentle, a real gentleman. He doesn't interrupt you during conversation. He listens to you until the end."
This butler still comes to us when his employer needs more staff.
You see three to five candidates
Each one comes with a detailed profile and our honest take. If someone is strong but hasn't worked on a country estate before, we'll tell you that.
We stay involved after you hire
Average staff tenure across the industry has dropped from 20 years to about three.
Things change. We stay available all the time.
We also offer direct employment, where we employ your butler on your behalf and handle contracts, payroll, and legal obligations.
Frequently Asked Questions
The most common questions when it comes to hiring a Butler in the UK.
How much does a butler cost in the UK?
£50,000 to £100,000 a year, from our 2025/26 Annual Report.
London sits at the top of that range. Live-in roles offer a lower base plus accommodation.
You’ll need to add employer’s National Insurance and holiday pay on top.
Butlers with a strong track record of discretion can earn 15 to 20% more.
Butler or house manager?
The titles overlap. A butler has traditionally focused on personal service like table service, wine, and hospitality.
A house manager leans more towards running the property and managing staff. A lot of modern roles combine both.
Do I need a butler with formal training?
About 22% of our UK clients ask for it, which is higher than any other market we work in.
Graduates from schools like the British Butler Institute or Ivor Spencer have a strong foundation in etiquette and formal entertaining.
But some of our best placements learned through years on the job.
Our Annual Report found clients rank discretion and trustworthiness above qualifications.
How long does hiring take?
Two to eight weeks. We start with a call, search our network, and show you three to five vetted candidates. Then interviews, a trial period, and employment setup.
Live-in or live-out?
Most of our candidates are happy to do either. In London, live-out is more common. In country estates, live-in is the norm.
Has Brexit affected butler recruitment?
Yes. EU citizens now need a visa to work in UK households.
The talent pool has shrunk and salaries have gone up.
Our network of eight offices and 200,000+ candidates helps us look internationally when we need to.
United Kingdom
office address
Level 1, Devonshire House, One Mayfair Place, W1J 8AJ, London, United Kingdom
phone
+44 20 4578 6249
contact@morganmallet.agency
opening hours
Monday - Thursday : 9AM - 6PM
Friday : 9AM - 5PM
Saturday & Sunday : Closed
Find Butler jobs in the UK
If you’re an experienced butler looking for a role in the UK, we can help.
We place butlers in London townhouses, country estates, and private households across the UK.
Most of these roles are never advertised publicly.