Gargoyle Club

The Gargoyle Club was a private members' club on the upper floors of 69 Dean Street, Soho, London (at the corner with Meard Street), founded in 1925 or 1928 (sources vary) by the aristocratic socialite David Tennant, the brother of Stephen Tennant and the war poet Edward Wyndham Tennant.

There was a very large ballroom, a bar, coffee room and drawing room. Some of the interiors were by Henri Matisse, who was also a member. It was reached by a small and rickety lift. The interior was Moorish and mirrored with pieces of 18th century glass.

In 1948, the Colony Room was founded opposite at 41 Dean Street by Muriel Belcher.

It closed in 1978. In 1979, one of the Gargoyle's rooms became the premises of The Comedy Store, with the Nell Gwyn Strip Club below. 69 Dean Street later became Gossip's nightclub. Together with 70 Dean Street, it is now the Dean Street Townhouse hotel.

Matisse's The Red Studio which was displayed at the Gargoyle Club until 1941 has been in the MoMA, New York permanent collection since 1949.

The Club was said by its members to be haunted by the ghost of Charles II's mistress Nell Gwyn.

Notable members

• Fred Astaire
• Francis Bacon (artist)
• Tallulah Bankhead
• Lady Caroline Blackwood
• Guy Burgess
• Noël Coward
• Lucian Freud
• Graham Greene
• Augustus John
• Robert Kee
• Donald Maclean
• Henri Matisse
• John Minton
• Ivan Moffat
• Henrietta Moraes
• Dylan Thomas
• Philip Toynbee