The Society Club 12 Ingestre Place ‘Soho’, W1F 0JF London
The Society Club invites you to celebrate Sophie Parkin and the launch of her book The Colony Room Club 1948-2008: A History of Bohemian Soho and to view the new photography exhibit ‘STILLSOHO’ featuring photos from The Colony Club and Soho by Carla Borel.
The Colony Room Club in Soho was opened on the first floor of 41 Dean Street in 1948 by proprietor Muriel Belcher, then aged 40. It closed 60 years later, after playing host to some of the most celebrated creative minds in music, theatre, drama, art, literature, comedy, poetry, espionage and the House of Lords. In her new book, Sophie Parkin sets out to memorialize this great Soho institution with interviews, photographs and art pieces – creating a wonderful historical document of a very particular club that bar honoured and engendered ideas and art through the mix of people and countless conversations of sense and nonsense.
In her new book, Sophie collated more than 50 interviews with habitués of the Colony. These include unreported tales of high jinks and low tragedy, insider voices, and the occasional debauched anecdote. These voices offer insights into the various phases of the Colony’s 60 year journey. Along the way, the Colony blazed the trail of what a club might mean to its members. As well as being a part of louche Soho, with whom it had a reflective relationship, the Colony also documented changing shape of bohemia in the post-war era.
Adding even more magic to the night, photographer Carla Borel will be exhibiting her work at The Society Club in a show she has called ‘STILLSOHO’. In ‘STILLSOHO’, Borel presents a series of intimate black and white portraits of artists, writers and flanneurs– photos capturing the last decade in and around Soho. Included in the series are shots of the Colony Room along with other familiar landmarks. Having had her first solo-show at The Colony Room in 2008 and having worked at another famed and still going strong Soho institution, The French House, Borel knows and loves Soho – and that love is gorgeously captured in her photography.
Join us to celebrate Sophie and her new book and Carla and her photography and see old friends and raise a glass to remember The Colony Room and to celebrate Soho.
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