60-481: The Gargoyle Club was a private club on the upper floors of 69 Dean Street , Soho , London, at the corner with Meard Street . It was founded on 16 January 1925 by the aristocratic socialite David Tennant , son of the First Baron Glenconner . David was the brother of Stephen Tennant who was a prominent member of the social set called " Bright Young People " and of Edward Tennant , the poet who
120-646: A bar in The Pitcher and Piano chain and the pair of houses became Listed Grade II . Then in the run-up to their rebirth in 2008, the interiors of numbers 69 and 70 were completely rebuilt by Soho House to create the Dean Street Townhouse hotel and restaurant. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle 's first date took place at the Dean Street Dining Room in the Dean Street Townhouse in 2016. An extensive hand-written list of members
180-460: A centre of the creative and advertising industries including film and video editing facilities; this was especially true from the 1960s to the 1990s. There have been many music and theatre venues on the street, including the Soho Theatre , which presents new plays and stand-up comedy. The celebrated Gargoyle Club ran for 27 years in the upper floors at number 69, an address that also housed
240-581: A humorous caricature of England which came to be known as John Bull . Furniture maker William Hean lived at 17 Dean Street between 1827 and 1845. Karl Marx lived at 28 Dean Street between 1851 and 1856, above what is now the Hart Brothers restaurant Quo Vadis . The Marxes shared their house in Dean Street with Italian teachers and a cook and were very poor while living in the street. Their rooms were described by one visitor as being in "One of
300-482: A name change), though by 1953 one basement room beneath Meard Street had become six after knocking through walls underneath No 69, to include a reading room for the intellectuals. An advert claimed the Mandrake to be "London's only Bohemian rendezvous". A year's membership cost half a guinea “in advance” and the bait was illustrated with a photograph of an artist sketching beside an image of a voluptuous nude. Pretty soon
360-525: A new pedimented entrance door on Meard Street, curiously now east of the Gargoyle's, just a couple of yards nearer to Dean Street. Its lease was then acquired by Soho's only Jamaican club owner, Vince Howard, who changed its name to Billy's. Vince Howard in the cover story of The Face magazine in February 1983 was described as "a Soho legend himself, straight out of Shaft, huge hats, fistfuls of rings and
420-602: A number of corporate sponsors. In addition individual shows are often sponsored. Tate now spends around £1 million of its general funds each year on purchasing acquisitions and their related costs. The Outset Contemporary Art Fund was established in 2003, by Tate patrons Yana Peel and Candida Gertler. In collaboration with the Frieze Art Fair , the fund buys works from the fair for the Tate's collections. Other funds for acquisitions are raised by Tate funding groups such as
480-505: A private apartment, a very large ballroom, a Tudor Room, coffee room, drawing room and a 350-sq yds flat roof with a garden for dining and dancing, around which neighbouring chimneys were painted brilliant red. All who visited the club shared its intimately democratic and rickety external lift, four-person maximum, enclosed in shining metal like an art-nouveau cabin trunk, located round the corner in Meard Street. The charismatic Tennant
540-478: A range of logos that move in and out of focus, "suggesting the dynamic nature of Tate – always changing but always recognizable" Variations include a standard logo, a blurred version, a faded version and a halftone version consisting of dots rather than smooth fading. An update on the brand, designed by North, was released in 2016. The head of the Tate (formally the National Gallery of British Art and
600-453: A significant effect on the functioning of the original London Tate Gallery, whose size was increasingly proving a constraint as the collection grew. It was a logical step to separate the "British" and "Modern" aspects of the collection, and they are now housed in separate buildings in London. The original gallery is now called Tate Britain and is the national gallery for British art from 1500 to
660-525: A western entrance to the new Crossrail station at Tottenham Court Road , which would have a major impact on the area. From north to south: 51°30′50″N 0°07′58″W / 51.51389°N 0.13278°W / 51.51389; -0.13278 Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom 's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It
SECTION 10
#1732782386013720-474: A young boy, gave a recital at 21 Dean Street. Admiral Nelson stayed in Dean Street the day before setting sail for the Battle of Trafalgar . He spent the night drawing up his final battleplans, including the masterstroke of painting identifiable gold and black checks on the ships. He is said to have spent the early part of the evening at a nearby undertakers selecting the coffin he would like to be buried in were
780-464: Is a cheerful spot always crowded with people discussing art, politics or women in the liveliest way. ‘My unpaid cabaret,’ David Tennant calls them… The restaurant downstairs seats 140 and its ceiling and general design have been modelled on the Alhambra at Granada. The mirrors are particularly attractive, unless you have drunk too much gin!... The four-piece band led by Alec Alexander, suits the style of
840-564: Is illustrated in Michael Luke's Gargoyle Years , between pages 84–85. 51°30′48″N 0°07′57″W / 51.513338°N 0.132554°W / 51.513338; -0.132554 Dean Street Dean Street is a street in Soho , central London , running from Oxford Street south to Shaftesbury Avenue . It crosses Old Compton Street and is linked to Frith Street by Bateman Street . In 1764 Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart , then
900-652: Is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the UK Department for Culture, Media and Sport . The name "Tate" is used also as the operating name for the corporate body, which was established by the Museums and Galleries Act 1992 as "The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery". The gallery was founded in 1897 as the National Gallery of British Art. When its role was changed to include
960-506: The Alhambra , he suggested covering the walls entirely with a mosaic of imperfectly cut glass tiles from an 18th-century chateau. Matisse himself designed a stunning entrance staircase to this room in glittering steel and brass, which remained in use until the club's conversion into a studio complex in the mid-1980s. The young Tennant bought two of Matisse's paintings in Paris for £600 and in
1020-644: The Charities Act 1993 , the Tate is an exempt charity accountable directly to Government rather than the Charity Commission for financial returns etc. However, the Trustees are still expected to follow the broad responsibilities of charity trustees, and may be subject to Charity Commission oversight on these elements of their activities. Maria Balshaw has been Director of Tate since 2017, succeeding Sir Nicholas Serota (1988 to 2017). Under
1080-527: The Colony Room which was founded in 1948 by Muriel Belcher across at 41 Dean Street . For years the Gargoyle was one of the few places in London serving drinks at affordable prices after midnight. In 1955 the club was sold on to Michael Klinger and Jimmy Jacobs who relaunched it as a strip club called the Nell Gwynne (variously advertised as a Theatre, Club, or Revue). A 1960s ad shows the club as
1140-701: The Turner Prize , the first time this has been held outside London. This was an overture to Liverpool's being the European Capital of Culture 2008. In 1993, another offshoot opened, Tate St Ives . It exhibits work by modern British artists, particularly those of the St Ives School . Additionally the Tate also manages the Barbara Hepworth Museum and Sculpture Garden , which opened in 1980. Neither of these two new Tates had
1200-635: The initiative started in 2000 including Tate in Space (2002) which was nominated in the Interactive Art category for the 2003 BAFTA Interactive awards. Tate receives annual funding from the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport . It is administered by a board of trustees, who are responsible for the running of the gallery and appoint the Director (for a period of seven years). Under
1260-534: The 1980s, crucially a Bowie night run by Steve Strange and Rusty Egan who teamed up at Billy's in 1978 and went on to open the hugely influential Blitz Club which kick-started the New Romantics movement. During the 1970s, the ground floor at No 69 had been occupied by A. Stewart McCracken Ltd Auction Rooms and at No 70 was the Hostaria Romana restaurant. More recently, 69–70 Dean Street became
SECTION 20
#17327823860131320-517: The Director, Kerstin Mogull has been Managing Director of Tate since January 2014, succeeding Alex Beard . Various bodies have been set up to support the Tate including Tate Members for the general public, where a yearly fee gives rights such as free entry to charging exhibitions and members' rooms. There is also Tate Patrons for a higher subscription fee and the Tate Foundation. There are
1380-769: The Members, the Patrons and the American Patrons of Tate and its sub-committees, the North American Acquisitions Committee and Latin American Acquisitions Committee. The American Patrons were renamed in 2013 to reflect their expanding geographical base of support; since 1999, this support group alone has raised more than $ 100 million. In 2010, a photography acquisitions committee was launched. In 2012,
1440-491: The National Gallery of Art (the same title as the Tate Gallery had). Forty years later Sir Henry Tate who was a sugar magnate and a major collector of Victorian art, offered to fund the building of the gallery to house British Art on the condition that the State pay for the site and revenue costs. Henry Tate also donated his own collection to the gallery. It was initially a collection solely of modern British art, concentrating on
1500-637: The Nell Gwynne by day and the Gargoyle Club at night. On 19 May 1979 in the Gargoyle's rooftop club space Hammersmith-born insurance salesman Peter Rosengard started a weekly club night on Saturdays called the Comedy Store , in partnership with comedian Don Ward . It was modelled on the original in Los Angeles, and invited audiences to show approval or disapproval of the unknown acts performing by "gonging" them off. The London Comedy Store made
1560-481: The Tate Gallery was finally separated from the National Gallery. During the 1950s and 1960s, the visual arts department of the Arts Council of Great Britain funded and organised temporary exhibitions at the Tate Gallery including, in 1966, a retrospective of Marcel Duchamp . Later, the Tate began organising its own temporary exhibition programme. In 1979 with funding from a Japanese bank a large modern extension
1620-487: The Tate established a South Asian acquisitions committee to collect contemporary and modern art from India and surrounding countries, as well as a committee for works from Russia, Eastern Europe and the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States). The Tate logo was designed by international brand consultancy Wolff Olins in 2000 as part of a larger rebranding effort focused around the idea "look again, think again." The museum uses
1680-465: The area. All four museums share the Tate Collection. One of the Tate's most publicised art events is the awarding of the annual Turner Prize to a British visual artist, which takes place at Tate Britain every other year (taking place at venues outside of London in alternate years). The original Tate was called the National Gallery of British Art, situated on Millbank , Pimlico , London at
1740-524: The art dealer and patron Joseph Duveen paid for two major expansions of the gallery building. His father had earlier paid for an extension to house the major part of the Turner Bequest, which in 1987 was transferred to a wing paid for by Sir Charles Clore . Henry Courtauld also endowed Tate with a purchase fund. By the mid 20th century, it was fulfilling a dual function of showing the history of British art as well as international modern art. In 1954,
1800-452: The band Curiosity Killed the Cat . A second private club became part of the story of 69 Dean Street during the postwar 1940s when an eccentric crowd started gathering in the Mandrake at No 4 Meard Street , a house only a few yards west of the Gargoyle's entrance with its tiny lift. An underground room was rented for a chess club by streetwise Teddy Turner and Bulgarian émigré Boris Watson (after
1860-512: The battle not to go according to plan, which proved to be time well spent, for he died in the battle despite leading the British fleet to victory. Charles Dickens was also a regular on Dean Street when he was a young actor enthusiastically participating in amateur productions at Fanny Kelly's Royalty Theatre at number 73–74. In 1845 he starred in an adaptation of Ben Jonson 's Every Man in his Humour , which met mixed reviews; Dickens' acting
Gargoyle Club - Misplaced Pages Continue
1920-424: The club. It delivers lively, cheerful music that you can dance to without having your nerves torn to shreds. Alec knows all the members and seems to enjoy playing requests." – Stanley Jackson, 1946 In 1952 David Tennant sold the Gargoyle as a declining concern for £5,000 to caterer John Negus and it remained popular among the generation of Francis Bacon , Antonia Fraser and Daniel Farson who would often go on from
1980-595: The current-day Tate, consisting of a network of four museums: Tate Britain , which displays the collection of British art from 1500 to the present day; Tate Modern , also in London, which houses the Tate's collection of British and international modern and contemporary art from 1900 to the present day; Tate Liverpool (founded in 1988), which has the same purpose as Tate Modern but on a smaller scale; and Tate St Ives in Cornwall (founded in 1993), which displays modern and contemporary art by artists who have connections with
2040-400: The erection of the back premises, with the wall still fronting Meard Street. Vincent's daughter, Clara, the singer, was also living here in 1840 and the painter, J. P. Davis, in 1842. In 1847 the firm of Novello became music printers also. It was probably in 1864–5 that the upper storeys were added to No. 69 to accommodate the printing works. In 1867 the firm removed to Berners Street but in 1871
2100-483: The first incarnation upstairs in the Gargoyle Club of the Batcave , a Wednesday night fronted by Olli Wisdom, lead singer in the house band, Specimen , and guitarist Jon Klein as art director. Visitors included Robert Smith , Siouxsie Sioux , Steve Severin , Foetus, Marc Almond and Nick Cave . The Nell Gwynne strip-teasers were still performing from 2.30 pm until late evening, when they could be seen exiting via
2160-852: The licensing laws, as well as late into the early hours after the 10.30 pm closing time for pubs. One condition was that clubs were required to serve food with alcohol. Result: the Mandrake became notorious for its stale sandwiches piled behind the bar, in Watson's view available “for drinking with, not for eating”! Inevitably the drinkers grew to outnumber the thinkers. Soon a jukebox made its appearance along with live guitar and lute recitals, and impromptu jam sessions for jazz musicians such as pianist Joe Burns, bassists Wally Wrightman and Percy Borthwick, drummers Laurie Morgan and Robin Jones, trombonist Norman Cave, singer Cab Kaye and Ronnie Scott (later founder of Soho's pre-eminent jazz club), plus visitors such as
2220-522: The national collection of modern art as well as the national collection of British art , in 1932, it was renamed the Tate Gallery after sugar magnate Henry Tate of Tate & Lyle , who had laid the foundations for the collection. The Tate Gallery was housed in the current building occupied by Tate Britain, which is situated in Millbank , London. In 2000, the Tate Gallery transformed itself into
2280-509: The nightclub Billy's in its cellars during the late 1970s. There, New Romanticism , a landmark youth movement, took root. On 10 July 2009 a fire broke out on Dean Street. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries but nobody else was hurt. The building that caught fire was gutted. The start of a dramatic change to Dean Street began in March 2010 as the demolition commenced of an entire block (Great Chapel Street and Dean Street) in preparation for
2340-489: The offbeat broadcaster Daniel Farson was calling its barmaid Ruth Soho's equivalent of Manet's famous Suzon painted serving at A Bar at the Folies Bergère . Regulars included Nina Hamnett , Brian Howard and Julian Maclaren-Ross for whom Watson would cash cheques in the form of credit behind the bar. Private membership clubs were allowed to stay open during the strict afternoon closing hours imposed on pubs by
2400-573: The only black man to own a venue in Soho." The publication also quoted his jeweller describing a mountainous ring he was making for the glamorous club owner: “18‑carat gold, 16 diamonds, it shone like a torch. I showed it to Vince and he said, I want more diamonds on it.” Howard spent some time trying to identify an audience, first with soul music, and then becoming a blatantly gay venue in those early days following liberation. “A rather seedy gay club frequented by rough lesbians and even rougher trannies... It
2460-547: The opinion of Anthony Powell they "lent an air of go-ahead culture to the club". These were the painter's daring and inventive The Red Studio from 1911 which was displayed in the bar at the Gargoyle until 1941, offered to the Tate Gallery for £400 and declined, then in 1949 joined the MoMA permanent collection in New York where it still hangs. The other Matisse, The Studio, Quai St Michel (1916), features his favourite model
Gargoyle Club - Misplaced Pages Continue
2520-611: The present day, as well as some modern British art. Tate Modern , in Bankside Power Station on the south side of the Thames , opened in 2000 and now exhibits the national collection of modern art from 1900 to the present day, including some modern British art. In the late 2000s, the Tate announced a new development project to the south of the existing building. According to the museum this new development would "transform Tate Modern. An iconic new building will be added at
2580-536: The printing works returned to No. 69, and No. 70 was bought in 1875 for the storage of plates. Thenceforward the firm occupied both houses until 1898, when it moved to new printing works in Hollen Street." Survey of London David Tennant took a 50-year lease on the upper three floors, while an existing printing works established by the Novello music publishing family remained housed beneath. Here he created
2640-463: The realm. Designed by Henri Matisse , Edwin Lutyens , and Augustus John , the interior decor was theatrical – a fountain on the dance floor, log fires in the dining room, wooden gargoyles suspended as lanterns – with a strong Moorish flavour. Henri Matisse was made an honorary member after advising on decor. To complement the main club-room's elaborate coffered ceiling painted with gold leaf, like
2700-556: The reputations of many of the UK's upcoming " alternative comedians ". Among the original line-up here were Alexei Sayle , Rik Mayall , Adrian Edmondson , French & Saunders , Nigel Planer and Peter Richardson who in 1980 led these pioneers to establish the breakaway Comic Strip team elsewhere in Soho. All were to prove influential in reshaping British television comedy throughout the 1980s as stars of The Comic Strip Presents . In July 1982, among many themed weekly club-nights, came
2760-588: The rickety lift, even as Batcavers queued to come up. By the year's end, when the upper floors were sold off, the one-nighters such as Batcave moved on. The Comedy Store moved to a series of other venues, taking over 28a Leicester Square (previously the Subway club) in 1985. It had become a template for the new style of stand-up comedy clubs that opened around the land. Don Ward dissolved his business relationship with Rosengard in late 1981 while remaining CEO of Comedy Store interests. In 1984 Rosengard went on to manage
2820-530: The same domain. Other resources include illustrated information on all works in Tate's Collection of British and Modern, Contemporary and international art, all of Tate's research publications, and articles from the magazine Tate Etc. BT was the primary sponsor of Tate Online from 2001 to 2009. Tate Online has been used as a platform for Internet art exhibits, termed Net Art , which are organised as part of Tate's Intermedia Art initiative covering new media art . 13 net art exhibitions have been shown since
2880-537: The site of the former Millbank Prison . The idea of a National Gallery of British Art was first proposed in the 1820s by Sir John Leicester, Baron de Tabley . It took a step nearer when Robert Vernon gave his collection to the National Gallery in 1847. A decade later John Sheepshanks gave his collection to the South Kensington Museum (later the Victoria & Albert Museum ), known for years as
2940-453: The south of the existing gallery. It will create more spaces for displaying the collection, performance and installation art and learning, all allowing visitors to engage more deeply with art, as well as creating more social spaces for visitors to unwind and relax in the gallery." Arts philanthropist John Studzinski donated more than £6 million to the project. The extension to Tate Modern opened in 2016 as The Switch House and, in 2017,
3000-418: The touring Duke Ellington band. And the 1960s brought in the legendary painters and poets who were reinforcing Soho's reputation for general non-conformity. The kitchen was forced to upgrade and, according to Michael Luke, the Mandrake became "a launching pad for the Gargoyle – a place where loins could be girded and spirits stiffened for that challenging arena up above". By the 1970s the Mandrake had acquired
3060-541: The voluptuous Lorette, naked on a couch, on the club's stairs. Today she resides in Washington DC in The Phillips Collection , after Tennant, feeling himself to be on the verge of ruin, sold it for "a derisory sum" to Douglas Cooper , who in turn sold it on. "The decor is bright but tasteful and Matisse gave his expert advice. Several of his drawings of ballet girls grace the upstairs bar which
SECTION 50
#17327823860133120-517: The works of modern—that is Victorian era—painters. It was controlled by the National Gallery until 1954. Following the death of Sir Hugh Lane in the sinking of the RMS Lusitania in 1915, an oversight in his will meant that the collection of European modern art he had intended to go to Dublin controversially went to the Tate instead, which expanded its collection to include foreign art and continued to acquire contemporary art. In 1926 and 1937,
3180-489: The worst, therefore one of the cheapest, quarters of London..." Three of their five children died while living here, all in infancy. Marx's collaborator Friedrich Engels also lived in an apartment at 28 Dean Street. The French House in Dean Street is a public house that was the unofficial headquarters of Charles de Gaulle and the French resistance during World War II . The street has an association with healthcare. Over
3240-558: The years there have been various hospitals on the street including pioneering establishments for prevention and cure of diseases. The Royal Ear Hospital occupied number 10. An early maternity hospital was also located here and the Lock Hospital too was in Dean Street, Lock being a euphemism for venereal disease . Today there are two Sexual Health clinics on Dean Street: 56 Dean Street , and Dean Street Express at number 34, opposite Royalty Mews. Dean Street has in recent years been
3300-569: Was killed in action in World War I. This elegant house, 69 and 70 Dean Street, a pair of Georgian residences, was built on the Pitt estate in 1732–1735 by John Meard , the carpenter who helped standardise the Georgian town house. "In 1834 No. 69 was taken by Vincent Novello , the composer and musical editor, and his son, Joseph Alfred, music seller and publisher, who were perhaps responsible for
3360-603: Was opened that would also house larger income generating exhibitions. In 1987, the Clore Wing opened to house the major part of the Turner bequest and also provided a 200-seat auditorium. (The "Centenary Development", in 2001, provided improved access and public amenities) In 1988, an outpost in north west England opened as Tate Liverpool. This shows various works of modern art from the Tate collection as well as mounting its own temporary exhibitions. In 2007, Tate Liverpool hosted
3420-669: Was owned by a 300-pound six-foot-four black convicted pimp named Vince who sported a huge black fedora, a long leather coat, and fingers the size of sausages with enough diamond rings to give Imelda Marcos cause for concern. And lest we forget, in those days Soho was not full of posh restaurants and membership clubs; it was a vice-infested square mile that housed a red light above every door and on every floor." – Chris Sullivan on Billy’s in his book, We Can Be Heroes (2012). Billy's changed its name to Gossip's and became part of London's clubbing heritage by spawning scores of weekly club-nights that transformed Britain's music and fashion scene during
3480-595: Was renamed the Blavatnik Building after Anglo-Ukrainian billionaire Sir Leonard Blavatnik , who contributed a "substantial" amount of its £260m cost. The youngest person to be awarded a residency at the Tate is Travis Alabanza . Tate Digital is the name of the department responsible for Tate's website and other public-facing digital projects. Since its launch in 1998, Tate's website site has provided information on all four physical Tate galleries (Tate Britain, Tate St Ives, Tate Liverpool and Tate Modern) under
3540-431: Was said to be of debatable merit. Dickens's artistic contemporary George Cruikshank was also a resident of Dean Street and it was here that he drew the illustration for Dickens's early works. Cruikshank is perhaps best known as a cutting caricaturist with scant regard for his targets. He was once bribed £100 for his pledge not to "caricature His Majesty ( George III ) in any immoral situation." He obliged and instead created
3600-650: Was the self-appointed ringmaster to an arena where Bohemians could mingle comfortably with the upper crust, according to writer and film producer Michael Luke. Of the club's opening night The Daily Telegraph observed that its 300-strong list of members "probably contains more famous names in society and the arts than any other purely social club". Names on this list included Somerset Maugham , Noël Coward , Gladys Cooper , Leon Goossens , Gordon Craig , George Grossmith , Virginia Woolf , Duncan Grant , Nancy Cunard , Adèle Astaire , Edwina Mountbatten ; an obligatory Guinness , Rothschild and Sitwell ; MPs, and peers of
#12987