The Colony Room

The Colony Room Club 1948-2008; A History of Bohemian Soho
With Sophie Parkin
3rd December 2012

"Hello Darlings!" Muriel Belcher proprietress of the Colony would always greet her guests cheerily. Francis Bacon was engaged as a hostess at £10 a week in 1949 to bring in guests. By the end of each week he would have spent the money on drinks.

The Colony Room for those who knew it, needs no introduction. For those who didn’t manage a visit in those 60 years up some foul and dark stairs on Dean Street, Soho, missed a visual treat and a sociological experiment in creative living. For the Colony was an Arts club for the most important artists, ballet dancers, composers, poets, writers, MP’s, journalists, architects, gangsters, designers, directors, photographers, publishers, critics, musicians, academics, thinkers, fashionistas, actors, lords and ladies. Many like Dylan Thomas, Tallulah Bankhead, Nina Hamnett, Jeffery Bernard, Robert Carrier, George Melly, Jean Muir and Francis Bacon, had gigantic ego’s but all left them outside the green door before entering.

The Colony was a private party for outsiders and ostracised members of society. Whether you were black, gay, female, an artist or poet, or just liked them.Like other legendary meeting places, such as Les Deux Magots in Paris’ Left Bank, or Dean’s bar in Tangier, the Colony was a place where its guests felt more at home than home. From this small green room in post war Soho, London, the creative juices mingled that would enable Britain to rebuild itself from austerity into a vibrant artistic country.

Not for small children or the delicate, this lecture will use foul language liberally in describing the true stories of art and poetry .

The Colony Room Club 1948-2008; A History of Bohemian Soho
With Sophie Parkin
3rd December 2012
Doors at 6 pm, Show commences at 7 pm

"Hello Darlings!" Muriel Belcher proprietress of the Colony would always greet her guests cheerily. Francis Bacon was engaged as a hostess at £10 a week in 1949 to bring in guests. By the end of each week he would have spent the money on drinks.

The Colony Room for those who knew it, needs no introduction. For those who didn’t manage a visit in those 60 years up some foul and dark stairs on Dean Street, Soho, missed a visual treat and a sociological experiment in creative living. For the Colony was an Arts club for the most important artists, ballet dancers, composers, poets, writers, MP’s, journalists, architects, gangsters, designers, directors, photographers, publishers, critics, musicians, academics, thinkers, fashionistas, actors, lords and ladies. Many like Dylan Thomas, Tallulah Bankhead, Nina Hamnett, Jeffery Bernard, Robert Carrier, George Melly, Jean Muir and Francis Bacon, had gigantic ego’s but all left them outside the green door before entering.

The Colony was a private party for outsiders and ostracised members of society. Whether you were black, gay, female, an artist or poet, or just liked them.Like other legendary meeting places, such as Les Deux Magots in Paris’ Left Bank, or Dean’s bar in Tangier, the Colony was a place where its guests felt more at home than home. From this small green room in post war Soho, London, the creative juices mingled that would enable Britain to rebuild itself from austerity into a vibrant artistic country.

Not for small children or the delicate, this lecture will use foul language liberally in describing the true stories of art and poetry .

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