The Establishment was a

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 ...

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

that opened in October 1961, at 18

Greek Street Greek Street is a street in Soho, London, leading south from Soho Square to Shaftesbury Avenue. The street is famous for its restaurants and cosmopolitan nature. History It is thought to take its name from a Greek church that was built in ...

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 ...

, and which became known in retrospect for

satire Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...

although at the time was a venue more commonly booking jazz acts and used for other events. It was founded by

Peter Cook Peter Edward Cook (17 November 1937 – 9 January 1995) was an English actor, comedian, satirist, playwright and screenwriter. He was the leading figure of the British satire boom of the 1960s, and he was associated with the anti-establishme ...

and

Nicholas Luard Nicholas Lamert Luard (26 June 1937 Hampstead, London – 25 May 2004 Kensington, London) was a writer and politician. Background He was educated at Winchester College and Magdalene College, Cambridge, where he read English and was taught by F. ...

, both of whom were also important in the history of the magazine '' Private Eye''. The name "The Establishment" is a play on the meaning of "establishment" as in "institution," i.e. the club itself, and the broader definition meaning the prevailing social order of the time, which the satirists who founded, funded and performed at the club typically undermined. A pun is suggested as, to be a member of this club, was to literally but not figuratively be a "member of the establishment". Peter Cook called it "the only good title I ever came up with." The venue allowed the opportunity for budding comedians and satirists to perform new material in a nightclub setting, outside the jurisdiction of the

Lord Chamberlain The Lord Chamberlain of the Household is the most senior officer of the Royal Household of the United Kingdom, supervising the departments which support and provide advice to the Sovereign of the United Kingdom while also acting as the main cha ...

, whose censorship of language and content was a problem for many performers. Some who appeared included

Lenny Bruce Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, free-wheeling, and critical style of comedy which ...

in 1962 (subsequently banned from entering the UK a year later),

Barry Humphries John Barry Humphries (born 17 February 1934) is an Australian comedian, actor, author and satirist. He is best known for writing and playing his on-stage and television alter egos Dame Edna Everage and Sir Les Patterson. He is also a film prod ...

(as

Edna Everage Dame Edna Everage, often known simply as Dame Edna, is a character created and performed by Australian comedian Barry Humphries, known for her lilac-coloured ("wisteria hue") hair and cat eye glasses ("face furniture"); her favourite flower, th ...

), and musically, The

Dudley Moore Dudley Stuart John Moore CBE (19 April 193527 March 2002) was an English actor, comedian, musician and composer. Moore first came to prominence in the UK as a leading figure in the British satire boom of the 1960s. He was one of the four writ ...

Trio. ''The Establishment'', a

tie-in A tie-in work is a work of fiction or other product based on a media property such as a film, video game, television series, board game, web site, role-playing game or literary property. Tie-ins are authorized by the owners of the original prope ...

album of comedy routines and sketches featuring John Bird,

John Fortune John Fortune (born John C. Wood; 30 June 1939 – 31 December 2013) was an English satirist, comedian, writer, and actor, best known for his work with John Bird and Rory Bremner on the TV series ''Bremner, Bird and Fortune''. Early life Fortu ...

Eleanor Bron Eleanor Bron (born 14 March 1938) is an English stage, film and television actress, and an author. Her film roles include Ahme in the Beatles musical ''Help!'' (1965), the Doctor in '' Alfie'' (1966), Margaret Spencer in '' Bedazzled'' (1967), a ...

and

Jeremy Geidt Charles Jeremy Wollaston Geidt (25 February 1930 – 6 August 2013) was a British-born American stage actor, comedian and acting coach. He was a Professor of Acting at Yale University, and later at Harvard University, being a founding member of b ...

, was released on the

Parlophone Parlophone Records Limited (also known as Parlophone Records and Parlophone) is a German–British record label founded in Germany in 1896 by the Carl Lindström Company as Parlophon. The British branch of the label was founded on 8 August 192 ...

label in 1963. A second club was established in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

in 1963. However, both folded after only a few years. The Establishment in London closed in 1964.

Legacy

In March 2008, the site of the club was renamed Zebrano's but after a small group of Peter Cook devotees, Sally Western,

Jonathan Hansler Jonathan Hansler is an English actor. He has worked in theatre, film and television. Career Television Hansler's television roles include the aristocrat Colin Tennant in the 2005 TV movie ''The Queen's Sister'', Mr Pelham in the BBC drama s ...

and Robert Ross, pressured the management for some recognition of the old club's importance in satire, the owners agreed to place "The Establishment" in writing above the door. A

green plaque A blue plaque is a permanent sign installed in a public place in the United Kingdom and elsewhere to commemorate a link between that location and a famous person, event, or former building on the site, serving as a historical marker. The term i ...

was also positioned above the door by

Westminster City Council Westminster City Council is the local authority for the City of Westminster in Greater London, England. The city is divided into 20 wards, each electing three councillors. The council is currently composed of 31 Labour Party members and 23 Cons ...

after campaigning by the same group. The Establishment was referenced in the book ''

Stop-Time In tap dancing, jazz, and blues, stop-time is an accompaniment pattern interrupting, or stopping, the normal time and featuring regular accented attacks on the first beat of each or every other measure, alternating with silence or instrumen ...

'' by author Frank Conroy. The book is a semi-autobiographical account of Conroy's own life, and he mentions getting drunk at The Establishment, and then racing his car home to his apartment outside London while he was living in England with his wife in the '60s. The Establishment also featured briefly in the semi-fictional Peter Cook and Dudley Moore biopic ''

Not Only But Always ''Not Only But Always'' is a British TV movie, originally screened on the Channel 4 network in the UK on 30 December 2004. Description Written and directed by playwright Terry Johnson, the film tells the story of the working and personal relati ...

'' (2004); seen only in an exterior shot, it bore no resemblance to 18 Greek Street.

External links

Peter Cook plaque unveiling Feb 15th 2009 - The old Establishment Club"Peter Cook & Clives James - The Establishment Club"
Video of Peter Cook reminiscing, extract from Clive James' ''Postcard from London''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Establishment 1961 establishments in England 1964 disestablishments in England Music venues completed in 1961 Nightclubs in London Soho, London Greek Street Defunct nightclubs in the United Kingdom Former music venues in London