[title]
If words like seedy, sleazy and sordid are the kind of drinking den descriptions that have you intrigued rather than repelled, chances are you’ve heard of Soho’s Colony Room Club.
Founded at 41 Dean Street in 1948 by Muriel Belcher, the private members’ club became a breeding ground for bourgeois bohemia and gained a reputation as a hub for promiscuity and naughtiness in the heart of the Big Smoke’s red-light district.
Frequented in its heyday by icons of the art world including Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and Francis Bacon, cultural elites including Princess Margaret are even said to have deigned to visit its emerald green interior. A young Daniel Craig worked behind the bar in a bygone era, many moons before his days as 007.
But despite its A-list contact book, in 2008 barman-turned-owner Michael Wojas, struggling under financial pressure, was forced to close the club.
It was to the delight of Soho’s old guard that the haunt reopened as Colony Room Green in 2023, this time as a public bar located round the corner from the original site in the basement of 4 Heddon Street. But just three years after the much-missed drinking den was revived, it has shuttered its doors once more.
Its resurrection was presided over by Darren Coffield, a painter and the author of 2020’s ‘Tales from the Colony Room’.
Colony Room Green originally opened as a three-month immersive art installation based on an early 2000s version of the club, located under bar and restaurant Ziggy Green. Having outlived its intended lifespan by well over two years, restaurateurs Tom Onions and Prue Freeman decided to close its doors, according to the Daily Mail.
If you want a chance to wave goodbye to the reincarnated boozer, you’ll have to do so from the pavement outside, because Colony Room Green has already poured its last pint. We don't yet know whether its proprietors will be seeking a new venue.
The best dive bar in London, according to Time Out.
Did you see that King’s Cross surf and turf restaurant Island is closing and moving to a new location?
Plus: the OXO Tower’s famous rooftop restaurants have been taken over by the Fallow team.
Get the latest and greatest from the Big Smoke – from news and reviews to events and trends. Just follow our Time Out London WhatsApp channel.
Stay in the loop: sign up for our free Time Out London newsletter for the best of the city, straight to your inbox.