Coleherne, Earl's Court

Last updated

Coleherne, Earls Court
Pembroke, Earls Court, SW5 (7413737664).jpg
Rebranded as The Pembroke, 2011
Coleherne, Earl's Court
Location within Earl's Court, London
General information
Address261 Old Brompton Road, Earl's Court,
Town or city London
Country England
Coordinates 51°29′20″N0°11′29″W / 51.4889°N 0.1915°W / 51.4889; -0.1915

The Coleherne Arms 1866 public house was a gay pub in west London. Located at 261 Old Brompton Road, Earl's Court, it was a well-known music venue from the 1950s, and a popular landmark leather bar during the 1970s and 1980s. In 2008, it was rebranded as a gastropub, The Pembroke.

Contents

History

The Coleherne Arms 1866 (named after the Coleherne family) began life in 1866, at 261 Old Brompton Road. It had a long history of attracting a bohemian clientele before becoming known as a gay pub. A lifelong resident of Earl's Court Square, Jennifer Ware, recollected as a child being taken there to Sunday lunch in the 1930s; at that time, drag entertainers performed after lunch had finished.

Music and the Afro-Caribbean community

For over three decades, The Coleherne was celebrated for its Sunday lunchtime music sessions, [1] cutting across barriers of race, class, age and sexual orientation in a way unique in London. [2] Starting with traditional jazz in the mid-1950s, followed by modern jazz, [3] the seal was set in 1962 when pianist Russell Henderson arrived with two young students, fellow Trinidadians, to play their own brand of calypso-flavoured Latin jazz. [4]

Henderson soon formed a regular trio with Stirling Betancourt on timbales and a succession of double-bassists. He created a Caribbean-oriented atmosphere and instituted what became one of London's most popular jam sessions. [3] [5] He played solo piano on weekend evenings, [6] and, for the next 35 years, The Coleherne was the focus for dozens of musicians in search of a jam - much to the delight of brewers Bass Charrington. [7] The 1969 Guide to London Pubs described how The Coleherne 'really comes into its own as a musical pub on Sunday mornings, with the appearance of a dynamic West Indian band'. [6] The rich rhythmic mix involved percussionists including Errol Phillip aka "Blocker", [2] and double-bassists Brylo Ford, Irving Clement and David "Happy" Williams, followed by Clyde Davies, who soon switched to electric bass guitar. [5]

International jazz figures such as Johnny Griffin, Walter Davis Jr. and Philly Joe Jones contributed to this most democratic of jam-sessions, while locals included Eric Allandale, Graham Bond, Dave DeFries, Malcolm Griffiths, Rannie Hart, Joe Harriott, Shake Keane, Mike Osborne, Terri Quaye, Ernest Ranglin, John Surman and Olaf Vass. [2] [3] [5] [4] [8] [9] In the 1970s, the virtuoso folk guitarist Davey Graham was a regular. [10] Audiences included rock and pop musicians such as Eric Burdon, [8] Georgie Fame and Mick Jagger, [8] actors Norman Beaton, Ram John Holder, Danny "Pressure" Jackson, Horace James and Bari Jonson, poets Pete Brown and Michael Horovitz, publisher Peter Owen, and calypsonian Lord Kitchener.

In 1966, Henderson, Betancourt and Max Cherrie were recruited from The Coleherne to play steel-drums for the children's event organised by social worker Rhaune Laslett that evolved into the first Notting Hill Carnival. [11]

In 1973, The Coleherne's Sunday sessions were the subject of a documentary for the BBC Two television programme Full House, directed by Horace Ové and transmitted on 3 February 1973. [12]

Gay pub

The Coleherne became a gay pub in the mid-fifties. Originally it was segregated into two bars, one for the straight crowd and one for the gay community at a time when homosexuality was illegal. In the 1970s it became a notorious leather bar, with blacked-out windows, attracting an international crowd including Freddie Mercury, Kenny Everett, Mike Procter, Anthony Perkins, Rupert Everett, Ian McKellen and Derek Jarman. Leather men wearing chaps and leather jackets with key chains and colour-coded handkerchiefs formed the clientele, justifying its nickname of 'The Cloneherne'. The Coleherne was known internationally as a leather bar by 1965. [13] The gay community flourished in Earls Court [14] and many international tourists joined the locals.

It sought to lighten its image with a makeover in the mid-1990s to attract a wider clientele, but to no avail. In September 2008, it was purchased by Realpubs, underwent a major refurbishment and reopened as a gastropub, The Pembroke. The Coleherne was reputed to be the oldest gay pub in London before reopening as the Pembroke; the title then fell to the King Edward VI in Islington, which closed in 2011; then the Queen's Head in Chelsea which closed in 2016. [15] The Markham Arms at 138 King's Road, which closed in the early 1990s and is now a bank branch, was a gay pub on Saturdays only.

Notable events

Coleherne pub-goers, angry at the politicisation of gay sex, lifestyle and position in society by the Gay Liberation Front (GLF), pelted passing parade-goers with bottles in 1972. [16]

Over the years, many police arrests were made for a range of offences, including obstruction, soliciting, importuning, and the more serious conspiracy to corrupt public morals, in the street outside the pub at night when customers left at closing time. These arrests were often just as a result of little more than gay men standing in the street talking to each other—despite the fact that many other non-gay pubs in the area used to have similar crowds at closing time, with no police action taken against them. There were several local street disturbances and demonstrations in the 1970s and 1980s as a result of continual, decades-long police harassment around the Coleherne.

In its latter years the pub was infamous as having been the stalking ground for three separate serial killers from the 1970s to the 1990s: Dennis Nilsen, Michael Lupo and Colin Ireland. Ireland committed five murders in 1993, after making a New Year's resolution to become a serial killer. Although he later claimed to be straight, he picked up men at the Coleherne, whose colour-coded handkerchiefs indicated that they were into sadomasochism and passive. He accompanied his victims to their homes, where he restrained and then killed them.[ citation needed ]

American author Armistead Maupin included references to the Coleherne in his Tales of the City book Babycakes .

He left as a clock was striking ten somewhere and walked several blocks past high-windowed brick buildings to a gay pub called the Coleherne. These were the leather boys, apparently. He ordered another gin and tonic and stood at the bulletin board reading announcements about Gay Tory meetings and 'jumble sales' to benefit deaf lesbians.

When he returned to the horseshoe-shaped bar, the man across from him smiled broadly. He was a kid really, not more than eighteen or nineteen, and his skin was the same shade as the dark ale he was drinking. His hair was the startling part - soft brown ringlets that glinted with gold under the light, floating above his mischievous eyes like ... well, like the froth on his ale. [17]

The pub is referred to in the lyrics of 'Hanging Around' on the debut album Rattus Norvegicus by The Stranglers.

I'm moving in the Coleherne

With the leather all around me

And the sweat is getting steamy

But their eyes are on the ground

They're just hanging around

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earl's Court</span> District in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London

Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the sub-districts of South Kensington to the east, Chelsea to the south and Kensington to the northeast. It lent its name to the now defunct eponymous pleasure grounds opened in 1887 followed by the pre–World War II Earls Court Exhibition Centre, as one of the country's largest indoor arenas and a popular concert venue, until its closure in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gay bar</span> Drinking establishment catered to LGBT clientele

A gay bar is a drinking establishment that caters to an exclusively or predominantly lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ+) clientele; the term gay is used as a broadly inclusive concept for LGBTQ+ communities.

Gay News was a fortnightly newspaper in the United Kingdom founded in June 1972 in a collaboration between former members of the Gay Liberation Front and members of the Campaign for Homosexual Equality (CHE). At the newspaper's height, circulation was 18,000 to 19,000 copies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Hopkins (political activist)</span> British photographer, journalist, researcher and political activist (1937–2015)

John Victor Lindsay "Hoppy" Hopkins was a British photographer, journalist, researcher and political activist, and "one of the best-known underground figures of 'Swinging London' " in the late 1960s.

Michele del Marco Lupo was a serial killer originally from Italy, who was active in the UK. His most notable role was as branch manager at Yves Saint Laurent boutique in Brompton Road, London during the 1980s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Old Brompton Road</span> Street in South Kensington, London

Old Brompton Road is a major street in the South Kensington district of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Gateways club</span> Lesbian nightclub in London, 1936–1985

The Gateways club was a noted lesbian nightclub located at 239 King's Road on the corner of Bramerton Street, Chelsea, London, England. It was the longest-surviving such club in the world, open by 1931 and legally becoming a members club in 1936. In 1967 it became for women only. It closed on Saturday 21 September 1985 after a period of only opening for a few hours each weekend.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tommy Eytle</span> Guyanese calypso musician and actor (1926–2007)

Thomas Daniel Hicks Eytle was a Guyanese calypso musician and actor. Although born in Guyana, Eytle's career was based in the United Kingdom, where he lived after emigrating in 1951.

George Browne, better known as the Young Tiger, was a Trinidadian calypso musician.

Lauderic Caton was a Trinidadian guitarist who settled in Britain in 1940. He was an early proponent of the use of electric guitar in Britain, particularly in jazz music. According to Val Wilmer, "he exercised a significant influence on Pete Chilver and Dave Goldberg, the two jazz guitarists more generally credited as British pioneers of the amplified instrument, while his students, official and unofficial, ranged from jazz exponents to the Nigerian highlife specialist Ambrose Campbell and Hank Marvin of the Shadows."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Troubadour (London nightclub)</span> Nightclub in Earls Court, London

The Troubadour is a nightclub, restaurant and pub located at 265 Old Brompton Road, Earls Court, London. Established in 1954, it is one of the oldest and last remaining nightclubs and coffee houses of its era in London. It still offers live music seven days a week.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sterling Betancourt</span> Musical artist

Sterling Betancourt MBE, FRSA is a Trinidad-born pioneer, arranger and musician on the steelpan, a major figure in pioneering the Pan in Europe and the UK (1951).

Russell Audley Ferdinand "Russ" Henderson was a jazz musician on the piano and the steelpan. Originally from Trinidad and Tobago, he settled in England in the 1950s. He is most widely recognised as one of the founding figures of the Notting Hill Carnival in London, United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rhaune Laslett</span> British activist (1919–2002)

Rhaune Laslett was an English community activist and the principal organiser of the Notting Hill Fayre or Festival, that evolved into the Notting Hill Carnival.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Preston</span> British record producer, radio presenter and music critic

Sidney Denis Preston was a British record producer, recording studio owner, radio presenter and music critic. He was particularly influential in the British jazz and associated skiffle scenes from the 1940s to the 1960s.

Albon Timothy was a Trinidadian jazz and calypso musician and songwriter who played numerous instruments but was best known for his tenor saxophone playing. His most successful hit as a songwriter was "Kiss Me, Honey Honey, Kiss Me", written with Michael Julien, which reached number 3 in 1959 in the charts sung by Shirley Bassey.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Holder (musician)</span> British musician

Frank Holder was a Guyanese jazz singer and percussionist. He was a member of bands led by Jiver Hutchinson, Johnny Dankworth and Joe Harriott.

Rupert Theophilus Nurse was a Trinidadian musician who was influential in developing jazz and Caribbean music in Britain, particularly in the 1950s.

Leslie Stephen "Teacher" Palmer,, is a Trinidadian community activist, writer and teacher, who migrated in the 1960s to the UK, where he became involved in music and the arts in West London. He is credited with developing a successful template for the Notting Hill Carnival, of which he was director from 1973 to 1975, during which time he "completely revolutionised the event and transformed its structure and content almost beyond recognition." He is also known by the name of "The Wounded Soldier" as a kaisonian.

Oscar Grenville Hastings McKenzie, known as Mike McKenzie, was a Guyanese jazz pianist, bandleader, vocalist, composer and arranger, who performed in London from the 1950s to the 1980s. He covered a wide repertoire, from Habanera and Calypso, to trad jazz, swing and jazz standards. He led The Mike McKenzie Trio, Quartet and Quintet; Mike McKenzie's Habaneros; Mike McKenzie and his Rhythm; and The Mike McKenzie All Stars.

References

  1. ↑ Wilmer, Val (August 1964). "Sunday at The Coleherne". Flamingo. pp. 23–25.
  2. 1 2 3 Wilmer, Val (1989). Mama Said There'd Be Days Like This. The Women's Press. pp. 107, 167.
  3. 1 2 3 Wilmer, Val (February 2012). "Brilliant Corners: The Coleherne". Jazzwise . No. 160. p. 9.
  4. 1 2 Wilmer, Val (24 August 2015). "Russ Henderson obituary: Trinidad-born jazz pianist and leading figure in the steelband movement in Britain who helped set up the Notting Hill carnival". The Guardian . Retrieved 26 February 2023. From 1962 Sunday lunchtimes at the Coleherne, an otherwise gay pub in Old Brompton Road, provided an exceptional opportunity for amateurs to sit in with him, backed by a plethora of percussionists, with figures as musically diverse as Joe Harriott, Graham Bond, John Surman, Davey Graham and Philly Joe Jones taking their turn.
  5. 1 2 3 Wilmer, Val (September–October 2006). "From the Pan to the Gong". JazzUK. No. 71. pp. 12–13.
  6. 1 2 Green, Martin; White, Tony (1968). The 1969 Guide to London Pubs. Sphere Books.
  7. ↑ Time Out , 22–28 June 1979, page 11, 'rumoured to be one of Bass-Charrington's most profitable outlets...'
  8. 1 2 3 Wilmer, Val (September 2000). "Calypso at The Coleherne". Mojo . No. 82. p. 58.
  9. ↑ Peabody, Dave (July 2009). "A Critical Eye". FRoots . No. 313. pp. 50–53.
  10. ↑ Denyer, Ralph (July 1975). "Davey Graham". Guitar. Vol. 3, no. 12. pp. 15–17.
  11. ↑ Blagrove, Ishmahil Jr.; Busby, Margaret (2014). Carnival: A Photographic and Testimonial History of the Notting Hill Carnival. Rice N Peas.
  12. ↑ "Full House, BBC Two". BBC Programme Index. 3 February 1973. Retrieved 27 February 2023. A special edition featuring the work of West Indian artists, writers, musicians and film-makers. Introduced by Joe Melia. Among the main events: ... Going to Sunday School: A filmed visit to 'The Coleherne' - a pub in Earls Court which every Sunday lunchtime turns Caribbean. West Indians from all over London come to meet socially and listen to the Kaiso (Calypso) music of Russell Henderson and his band and other musicians who drop in. (Radio Times People: page 5)
  13. ↑ "Gay leather bars", cuirmale.nl, retrieved 1 October 2014
  14. ↑ Burnside, Grant, "The Coleherne, Earl's Court, 1981" and "Summer 1981" , retrieved 22 May 2013
  15. ↑ "Queen's Head", GayCity, retrieved 24 February 2021
  16. ↑ Cook, Matt, et al., eds. (2007) A Gay History of Britain, Oxford: Greenwood World, p. 186
  17. ↑ Maupin, Armistead (1988), Babycakes, London: Black Swan Books, pp. 146–149
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.