PLACES

The Colony Room Club

MURIEL'S CLUB

By Fiona Green

When I first came to Soho in 1962 with Bill Crozier, we would sometimes go to Muriel's Club. The green mirrored walls & louche clientele amazed this art student of 18. You could then sit in the company of George Melly,Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud & many many other glittering artists or literati. Muriel,who ran the place with a gloved fist, was a character who you never wanted to cross.A bitchy gay, she was given to schmoozing the wealthy & celebrated, & mocking the afflicted.After her death, it continued under Ian Board, another extraordinary character; but following his death, the place lost all its allure & most older people drifted away,leaving the YBAs to take over briefly. In spite of some pretty ghastly misspent afternoons there, I miss it enormously. Like the French pub further down the street, it was the heart of 50's & 60's Soho.

Photographer unknown