Murray's Cabaret Club was a

cabaret Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...

club in

Beak Street Beak Street is a street in Soho, London, that runs roughly east–west between Regent Street and Lexington Street. Location On its south side, Beak Street is joined by Warwick Street, Upper John Street, Upper James Street, Bridle Lane and G ...

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develop ...

, central

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

History

The club was first opened in 1913 by an American, Jack Mays, and an Englishman, Ernest A. Cordell. The club is known for its scantily-clad

showgirl A showgirl is a female dancer or performer in a stage entertainment show intended to showcase the performer's physical attributes, typically by way of revealing clothing, toplessness, or nudity. History Showgirls date back to the late 180 ...

s and its association with

Christine Keeler Christine Margaret Keeler (22 February 1942 – 4 December 2017) was an English model and showgirl. Her meeting at a dance club with society osteopath Stephen Ward drew her into fashionable circles. At the height of the Cold War, she became s ...

and the 1960s

Profumo affair The Profumo affair was a major scandal in twentieth-century Politics of the United Kingdom, British politics. John Profumo, the Secretary of State for War in Harold Macmillan's Conservative Party (UK), Conservative government, had an extramar ...

. It was a members-only club providing food and drink for its wealthy patrons along with music, space to dance and other entertainment. The entertainments included demonstration dancing, tableaux and fashion parades. Bands such as the Versatile Four performed there. As well as following musical fashion trends, such as tango and jazz, the club also provided cabaret-style presentations. It was open into the early morning but also offered popular afternoon

tea dance __NOTOC__ A tea dance, also called a ''thé dansant'' (French for "dancing tea"), was a dance held in the summer or autumn from 4 to 7 p.m. In the English countryside, a garden party sometimes preceded the dance.''Party-giving on Every Scale ...

s. It remained open during the First World War and continued to be popular in the interwar years, keeping up with trends to continue attracting a wealthy clientele. Its song and dance shows became more ambitious. Among the performers was

Gertrude Lawrence Gertrude Lawrence (4 July 1898 – 6 September 1952) was an English actress, singer, dancer and musical comedy performer known for her stage appearances in the West End of London and on Broadway in New York. Early life Lawrence was born Gertr ...

in the chorus near the start of her career. In 1923 it was renovated and re-named Blanchard’s. In the late 1930s, Murray's Club was re-opened at a different location, 16 -18 Beak Street. In the 1950s Murray’s had a total staff of 130, including 65 showgirls and understudies. The club was run by Percival Murray, then later by his son David Murray. David Murray was a friend of

Stephen Ward Stephen Thomas Ward (19 October 1912 – 3 August 1963) was an English osteopath and artist who was one of the central figures in the 1963 Profumo affair, a British political scandal which brought about the resignation of John Profumo, the Sec ...

and spent weekends at Ward’s cottage at Cliveden, where showgirl

was introduced to

John Profumo John Dennis Profumo, CBE,( ; 30 January 1915 – 9 March 2006) was a British politician whose career ended in 1963 after a sexual relationship with the 19-year-old model Christine Keeler in 1961. The scandal, which became known as the Profumo a ...

. David ran the club until 1967 when he fell out with his father over proposals to introduce a gambling floor. The club eventually closed in 1975. In 2018, Murray's was the subject of an exhibition mounted by the Museum of Soho in collaboration with poster dealer Charlie Jeffreys, and curator and historian Ben Levy. It featured costume designs by the illustrator Ronald Cobb along with a selection of club ephemera. The club location at 16–18 Beak Street is now a restaurant called "Byron".

References

External links

Murray's Cabaret Club website
1913 establishments in England 1975 disestablishments in England 1910s in the City of Westminster Former buildings and structures in the City of Westminster Nightclubs in London Soho, London {{london-stub