The Pickwick Club • London • UK

From The Pickwick Club. – Mid-Century Bond, March 19, 2020:

Everyone who was anyone went to the Pickwick Club. […] It could be found at 15-16 Great Newport Street, London, and was a hangout for the film and music business including John Barry, Leslie Bricusse (who at one stage part-owned the club along with Sammy Davis Jnr.), and the likes of Terence Stamp and Michael Caine.

This was a members only club and had various owners over the years including Wolf Mankowitz, the screenwriter responsible for Dr No and his friend Desmond Cavanagh, who was the brains behind it. He knew that they had to have an exclusive membership list, which was described as ‘one thousand very special people…a place for actors, designers, musicians, writers, artists and models.’ They didn’t need to pay a membership fee. Stamp and Caine were invited as up and coming people, and the Pickwick Club was seen as a place to meet the right people who would help give their careers a boost. Barry, Caine and Stamp were said to have spent a lot of time there, often not eating but propping up the bar. […]

Related articles