The Blue Cockatoo

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The Blue Cockatoo
Restaurant information
Street address Cheyne Walk, Chelsea
CityLondon
CountryEngland

The Blue Cockatoo was a restaurant in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London, at the corner with Oakley Street. [1] It is considered to have been England's first bistro. [1]

The restaurant and its upper room was popular with artists, including Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife, Margaret Macdonald Mackintosh, who had studios in nearby Glebe Place from 1915. [2] Other regulars included Augustus John, Randolph Schwabe, John Duncan Fergusson, and Margaret Morris. [2] The food itself "was often unappetizing and the service erratic". [2] Others included Eric Gill in 1927. [3]

The restaurant was recommended in Raymond Postgate's first volume (1950/51) of The Good Food Guide which says, "Just the thing for visitors with a hankering after art and bohemia. The food is good even if inclined to be monotonous, and the Blue Cockatoo is a sixteenth-century house lit by candles; the furniture is old and rickety, and there is a lovely view of the river through the trees of Carlyle Gardens. Very cheap but not licensed. Lunch 3/--, dinner 3/6 and 5/--." [4]

In 1962–1967, The Blue Cockatoo along with the Pier Hotel was sold to developers Wates Group to be replaced by "luxury flats". [1] [3] The block of flats is called Pier House, and a statue of A Boy on a Dolphin stands at the front. [3]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Topham, Guy (17 February 1967). "Civil War in Chelsea". The Spectator. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 Harris, Sheila (5 March 2017). "Charles Rennie Mackintosh at Glebe Place, Chelsea, London". 78 Derngate. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  3. 1 2 3 "Simon's Walks". At Home Inn Chelsea. Retrieved 20 March 2022.
  4. ↑ Postgate, Raymon (1951). The Good Food Guide. London: Cassell & Co. p. 183.


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