MUSIC VENUES

The 100 Club

The Feldman Swing Club was founded there in 1942 by the clarinettist (and pattern-cutter) Robert Feldman; it became a leading jazz venue and subsequently went on to host performances of just about every type of popular music.

Location: Century House, 100 Oxford Street, W1D 1LL. In the basement. The building has a clock that sticks out over the street at first-floor level. (orange, red)

Website: www.the100club.co.uk

Cadogan Hall

Cadogan Hall is a venue for classical music. The building was formerly used by the First Church of Christ Scientist .

Location: 5 Sloane Terrace, SW1X 9DQ (red, turquoise)

Website: https://cadoganhall.com

The Electric Ballroom

William Fuller was a Kerryman. As a teenager he settled in Camden Town and became involved in the building trade. He was a keen amateur boxer and wrestler. He also ran a club in West London.

Camden s Buffalo Club was an Irish dance hall. However, it was plagued by fights that stemmed from rivalries within the Irish community. The police closed it because it had become too violent. Fuller persuaded the force to allow him to run it. In 1941 an aerial bomb hit Camden Town Underground Station. Much of the adjoining row of buildings had to be demolished. Fuller bought the site and enlarged the dance hall.

Fuller was to expand his entertainment venue business within Britain and Ireland. He was also active in the demolition trade, engendering the comment What Hitler did not knock down, Bill Fuller did . He moved to the United States where he opened his first Irish ballroom in Manhattan in 1956. He bought the Fillimore East and the Fillimore West music venues. In the 1960s he became a well-known figure in Las Vegas. When many of the city s casinos were Mafia-controlled, he was one of the few promoters who was able to arrange for bands to perform there.

In 1978 the Buffalo Club reopened as The Electric Ballroom. Fuller allowed the Pogues to use it as a rehearsal space. He would watch the band practice and then cook its members a meal. He still owned the venue when he died in 2008.

Location: 184-185 Camden High Street, NW1 8QP (purple, yellow)

Website: https://electricballroom.co.uk

Music Venue Trust

Website: https://musicvenuetrust.com

O2

In 2007 O2 opened. The building was formerly known as the Millennium Dome.

Location: Peninsula Square, SE10 0DX

Website: www.theo2.co.uk

The Royal Albert Hall

The Queen's Hall was destroyed by aerial bombing during the Second World War. The Proms moved to The Royal Albert Hall.

Location: Kensington Gore, SW7 2AP (red, brown)

Website: www.royalalberthall.com

Eric Clapton

For several years the rock guitarist and vocalist Eric Clapton played a dozen or so concerts in the Hall each December. It is reputed that after a while he grew tired of seeing the same faces in the front rows. His response to this was to buy up the seats himself and then give the tickets for them to other people.

See Also: POP & ROCK

Website: www.ericclapton.com

St John's Smith Square

St John's Smith Square (1728) building was one of the churches that was constructed under the Fifty New Churches Act of 1711. The building was designed by Thomas Archer. It was bombed during the Second World War. Money raised from its 1965 sale was used for the repair Christ Church Spitalfields (1714). The Smith Square building is now used as a concert hall.

Location: Smith Square, SW1P 3HA (blue, brown)

Website: www.sjss.org.uk

Ronnie Scott's

Ronnie Scott's is a jazz club.

The tenor saxophonist Ronnie Scott worked in dance bands. In 1958 the Musicians Union became more relaxed about its ban on American jazz musicians working in Britain; they could perform if a British musician was allowed to work in the United States. The following year Scott and his fellow saxophonist Peter King opened Britain's first six-nights-a-week jazz club in the basement of No. 39 Gerrard Street. The venue could seat 90 people and had no drinks licence.

The gangland boss Albert Dine walked into the original Ronnie Scott s. He liked jazz and told Scott that he would not have any trouble. He gave the saxophonist a bottle of champagne, stating, Open it when you make a profit. The bottle has never been opened.

Mr King gave up playing so that he could act as the club's business manager; a large part of his job was arranging reciprocal performances across the Atlantic; Scott continued to perform with his own quartet. For most of the 1960s the pianist Stan Tracey led the house band. In 1964 the club moved to premises in Frith Street.

Scott, who had a somewhat sardonic manner, often acted as the club's master of ceremonies. He was infamous for his appalling jokes, many of which he received requests for. Examples of his humour are His mother was a titled lady - she was Southern Area Light Heavyweight Champion and, if the Club was not full, Let's join hands and try to make contact with the living.

Location: 47 Frith Street, W1D 4HT (pink, yellow)

See Also: JAZZ Venues

Website: www.ronniescotts.co.uk

The Troubador

The Troubador coffee bar was opened in 1954 by the Canadian husband and wife Michael and Sheila van Bloemen. It became a hub of the folk music scene. The visiting American musicians who performed in its basement included Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, and Paul Simon.

In 1970 the van Bloemens sold The Troubador.

Location: 265-267 Old Brompton Road, SW5 9JA (orange, brown)

See Also: CAFES Coffee Bars; FOLK MUSIC

Website: www.troubadour.london

The Union Chapel

The Union Chapel (1878) was founded by a group of Anglicans who had broken away from St Mary's Church Islington. The congregation became part of the Congregational Union. The James Cubbitt-designed building replaced a Classical building that had been the centrepiece of Compton Terrace. The Chapel could seat over 1600 people.

With the passage of time the size of the church's membership declined. In order to secure an income to maintain the building, a decision was made to allow the church to be used for concerts of secular music.

Location: 19b Compton Terrace, N1 2UN (red, turquoise)

Website: https://unionchapel.org.uk

The Wigmore Hall

The Wigmore Hall hosts Classical music performances. The venue was opened in 1901 as the Bechstein Hall. Its purpose was to help to promote Bechstein pianos. Following the start of the First World War, the Hall's German ownership led to the building being taken into state possession. Bechstein s entire U.K. business was sold to Debenhams the department store company. The Hall reopened in 1917 under its present name.

Location: 36 Wigmore Street, W1U 2BP (red, turquoise)

See Also: HOTELS The Goring Hotel

Website: https://wigmore-hall.org.uk

David Backhouse 2024