Tales from Soho

by David Barry

  In the sixties, satire and a strong urge to rock the establishment became all the rage, and a club was opened in Greek Street in 1961, aptly named the Establishment, founded by Peter Cook and Nicholas Luard. In the same year, not far from the Establishment, Private Eye, a satirical and current affairs magazine, began building its circulation. The magazine often exposed malpractices and regularly fought for survival when writs were issued against it. The Establishment shut its doors in 1964, while Private Eye continues to prosper.

  As well as rock ‘n’ roll taking off in the fifties, it was jazz clubs that gripped Soho, the most renowned being Ronnie Scott’s club. Scott was a saxophone player, and as well as playing with his own band, famous jazz musicians from all over the world enjoyed performing in the intimacy of his club. Another famous music venue was the Marquee Club, which moved from Oxford Street to Wardour Street in 1964. The Marquee began life as a jazz and skiffle club, but in the sixties became rhythm ‘n’ blues and rock, and musicians like the Yardbirds and Manfred Mann and the Rolling Stones often performed there in the early days.

  Back in 1914 drinking laws became stringent and pubs were only allowed to open for so many hours in a day. Up until the early-eighties, the licensing laws continued to stop anyone enjoying an afternoon drink beyond 2.30 p.m., until pubs’ early-doors when they opened again at 5.30 p.m. So to get around these severe drinking laws, Members Only drinking clubs opened up, many of them catering for misfits, artists, writers and actors. The most famous, or infamous of these, depending on your attitude, was the Colony Room, opened by Muriel Belcher in 1979 and regulars to the club included artists such as Lucian Freud, Francis Bacon, journalists Daniel Farson and Jeffrey Bernard, and many actors, writers and poets. It was rumoured that Dylan Thomas once puked on the carpet of the Colony Room.

  The wonderful thing about Soho is that it still has the thrilling atmosphere of a sort of diverse enclave in the middle of London, an urban village teeming with creative characters. Media establishments, from recording studios and editing suites, to publishing houses are central to its existence And the small retail outlets are fascinating: off-licences which sell exotic liquor unobtainable in local supermarkets, including the mind-blowing absinthe; newsagents where you can purchase magazines and newspapers in hundreds of languages from all over the world; and music shops selling esoteric recordings of long-forgotten divas and crooners.

  Soho has attracted and been home to hundreds of famous writers, politicians, artists and actors. Karl Marx who lived in the district for six years, held the second congress of the Communist League and wrote the Communist Manifesto in a room above the Red Lion pub in Great Windmill Street. The young nine-year-old Mozart stayed in Soho when he toured with his family, and a plaque commemorating his stay is fixed to the wall near the Stage Door of the Prince Edward Theatre. Other notable residents included Casanova, Canaletto, William Blake, Shelley and Isaac Newton, to name just a few The list goes on and on. For a complete record of Soho’s famous residents and blue commemorative plaques, go to www.thesohosociety.org.uk

  There have, of course, been many changes in the area over the years. The famous Windmill Theatre is now a table-dancing club rather than a cabaret venue, but I guess that’s still in keeping with its reputation for titillation. And pubs like the Intrepid Fox in Wardour Street, where Mick Jagger famously persuaded Ronnie Wood to join the Rolling Stones, have long since disappeared. But changes happen in most districts. Thankfully Soho retains its cosmopolitan character, and long may that continue.

  Some Famous Soho Pubs

  French House

  A favourite hang out for actors and artists. This Dean Street pub opened as the Wine House in 1910 by a German who was deported at the outbreak of war in 1914. The pub was bought by a Belgian who changed the name to the York Minster. His son, Gaston Berlemont was born on the premises in 1914, and ran the pub until his retirement in 1989. Although it was called the York Minster, it was known informally as ‘The French’ by its regular customers. After the fall of France during the second world war, General de Gaulle escaped to London and the French House became a regular meeting place for the Free French Forces. Anyone wanting a pint of beer in this pub will be disappointed, as traditionally they only serve beer in half pints. But this is one of Soho’s favourite drinking dens, with a great tradition of hard-drinking writers and artists holding forth while inebriated, and one can imagine the mellifluous tones of Dylan Thomas in the late-forties and early-fifties rising above the then fug of a smoky atmosphere. He was probably inebriated when he left behind his only copy of Under Milk Wood there, which was later rescued by BBC producer Douglas Cleverdon. The bar is decorated with photographs of many well-known habitués from those halcyon days.

  Coach and Horses

  Just a stone’s throw from ‘The French’, at the back of the Palace Theatre, this pub became famous in a Keith Waterhouse autobiographical play, Jeffery Bernard is Unwell, starring Peter O’Toole as Bernard. The play’s setting is in the bar of the Coach and Horses, but the pub’s landlord does not make an appearance, although Bernard is seen talking to him on the phone several times in the show. Norman Balen, landlord of the pub had a reputation for being the rudest pub landlord in London, an aspersion he never denied. The building itself is Grade II listed and dates from the 1850s. Journalists from Private Eye are regulars in the pub, as of course was Jeffrey Bernard, who wrote a regular column called “Low Life” for The Spectator magazine. Whenever Bernard missed a deadline from inebriation, the magazine would post a notice in its place saying: “Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell”. He died from kidney failure in 1997.

  Dog and Duck

  Built in 1734 on the site of the Duke of Monmouth’s home, on the corner of Bateman Street and Greek Street, the pub was rebuilt in 1897 and has remained largely unspoilt through the years. Even though it was redecorated in 2012, it still kept the dark oak wood and highly-glazed tiles which gives the pub its cosy atmosphere. Some of the famous regular customers were John Constable, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and George Orwell.

  Red Lion

  Not to be confused with the defunct pub of the same name in Great Windmill Street, this very traditional oak-panelled pub in Kingley Street has a great deal of atmosphere. The small bar at the front was used as a “jug and bottle”, an area of a pub that sold booze to take home. Running parallel to Carnaby Street, this old Kingley Street pub is in close proximity to the London Palladium, and not far from where the Marquee Club was in the early sixties before it moved to Wardour Street. Many singers and performers popped in to the Red Lion for a pint or two, or Scotch and Coke which was a fashionable drink back then. I worked at the Red Lion for three months as a barman in 1966, and I can remember serving Eric Burden, lead singer of The Animals, with a pint.

  Old Coffee House

  Which is in fact a pub in Beak Street, just north of Golden Square. Back in the 18th century it was a coffee house, and a meeting house for political discussions, current affairs and debate. The décor has wonderful etched mirrors advertising ales from old non-existent breweries. But it also proudly displays a more modern history, a framed exhibit of David Beckham’s signed photograph and a letter he wrote as a teenager explaining how he has received his first match fee and a bonus, and was now the proud possessor £250 in his bank

  Shakespeare’s Head

  The pub is in Great Marlborough Street, which is a street Charles Darwin lived at for a year. Built in 1735, Shakespeare’s Head was originally owned by Thomas and John Shakespeare, distant relatives of the great playwright. The pub’s sign is a reproduction of the famous Martin Droeshout portrait, and on another part of the building is a life-size bust of Shakespeare, missing a hand which was lost during the First World War when a bomb dropped nearby.

  Argyll Arms

  Almost opposite the London Palladium, this is a pub that has been popular with theatregoers for years. An ornate late-Victorian pub, the interior has a
fussy mahogany and etched glass enrichment typical of that era, providing plenty of genuine atmosphere.

  De Hems

  This old Dutch pub in Macclesfield Street is on the south side of Shaftsbury Avenue.

  It has been a public house since 1688 when it was called the Horse and Dolphin. De Hem, a retired Dutch seaman, took it over in the early 20th century. He was obsessed with crustacean shells and decorated the bar with thousands of oyster shells, which were removed in the 1950s. During the Second World War Dutch resistance fighters gathered here.

  Star and Garter

  One of the earliest sites to be developed in Poland Street, the pub dates back to 1825, and is not far from where Percy Bysshe Shelley resided. A small wood-panelled traditional pub, there is plenty of history here in the framed prints and photographs and china jugs and porcelain. This is very much a small, cosy local, and has probably been like it for many years.

  Pillars of Hercules

  The pub dates back to 1733, but the present building was built around 1910. Charles Dickens referred to it in A Tale of Two Cities, and the street under the pub’s arch is called Manette Street, named after Dr Manette in that novel. More recent literary figures who used the pub on a regular basis include Martin Amis, Ian McEwan, Julian Barnes and Clive James.

  Author Biography

  David Barry has been an actor for almost 50 years having started as a child actor He played Frankie Abbott in the 70s sitcoms Please, Sir! and Fenn Street Gang, and also appeared in the film of Please, Sir! He has appeared in countless theatre and TV productions, including episodes of The Bill, Never the Twain and A Mind to Kill. His films include the Walt Disney version of The Prince and the Pauper, Abandon Ship, starring Tyrone Power and Mai Zetterling, and he played Elvis, Stratford Johns’s nephew in George and Mildred, the Movie. His autobiography Flashback - An Actor’s Life was published in 2006, and includes his childhood memoirs of touring Europe in Titus Andronicus in1957 with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh as well as working on Please, Sir!. He has also recorded it as an audio book which is published by Oak Tree Press and is available on Amazon’s Audible. His published novels include: Mr Micawber Down Under, (Hale Books) and three Inspector Lambert thrillers, Each Man Kills, The Wrecking Bar and Missing Persons written in his own name of Meurig Jones. The Ice Cream Time Machine (for children) Willie the Actor, Careless Talk, and More Careless Talk are all published by Andrews UK. His Freddie Weston thrillers include Muscle (Thames River Press) and A Deadly Diversion (Acorn Books). He lives in Tunbridge Wells and has two grown up children.

  www.davidbarryauthor.co.uk

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