The Colony Room Club
He was "adopted" by Belcher who called him "Daughter", and gave him free drinks and £10 a week to bring in friends and rich patrons.
Members in Belcher's time also included Daniel Farson; Michael Andrews; John Deakin; and Henrietta Moraes, whose portrait by Bacon sold for £21.3 million in February 2012.
[3][4] Belcher's open attitude towards sexuality attracted many gay men to the club, many of them brought there by her Jamaican girlfriend, Carmel.
Belcher had a knack for attracting or discovering interesting and colourful people, and the patronage of men such as George Melly and Francis Bacon helped to establish the Colony Room Club's close-knit community.
[7] Clive Jennings says of regular clientele such as Jeffrey Barnard that "the lethal triangle of The French, The Coach & Horses and The Colony were the staging points of the Dean Street shuffle, with occasional forays into other joints such as The Gargoyle or the Mandrake ...
[8] It became a cultural magnet for the Young British Artists group (YBAs), including Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas, Tracey Emin and Joshua Compston, as well as musicians such as Lisa Stansfield.
As a promotional device, Wojas persuaded famous members, including Kate Moss and Sam Taylor-Wood to serve drinks from behind the bar.
[9] A campaign to keep the club open was fronted by dandy and artist Sebastian Horsley, attempting to secure the use of the premises in the future.
[6] In his epitaph for the Colony Room Club, novelist Will Self argued against the view that the closure demonstrated that "the old Soho is being killed off by smoking bans and other sanitising measures.
The crowd remains vibrant comprising many contemporary artists, writers, actors and musicians alongside past members including Darren Coffield the author of "Tales of the Colony Room" who curates the Club.
The British Museum holds a collection of prints, Colony Room Suite,[15] depicting Muriel Belcher, Francis Bacon and Ian Board, amongst other members of the club, made by the artist Michael Clark.
