The Karsino was a hotel on

Tagg's Island Tagg's Island, in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, is an island on the River Thames on the reach above Molesey Lock and just above Ash Island. Geography The centre of the island has a lake with river access and private moorings surro ...

in the

London Borough of Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...

which stood from 1912 until 1972. The Karsino

History

It was built for

Fred Karno Frederick John Westcott (26 March 1866 – 17 September 1941), best known by his stage name Fred Karno, was an English theatre impresario of the British music hall. As a comedian of slapstick he is credited with popularising the custard-p ...

by architect

Frank Matcham Francis Matcham (22 November 1854 – 17 May 1920)Mackintosh, Iain"Matcham, Frank" ''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'', Oxford University Press, accessed 7 July 2019 was an English architect who specialised in the design o ...

in 1912. When

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

started in 1914, the resort was popular with returning military officers and their families and staged picnics and entertainment at times for wounded soldiers. In 1925 Fred Karno declared bankruptcy. It changed hands several times and in 1972 the hotel, dilapidated, was demolished. Fire destroyed all the other buildings at the resort. An 11-minute film of the recreation on the lower

canalised River engineering is a discipline of civil engineering which studies human intervention in the course, characteristics, or flow of a river with the intention of producing some defined benefit. People have intervened in the natural course and b ...

Thames in 1924 has footage devoted to the Karsino, preceded by the intertitle (titlecard): "There are ample facilities for gaiety here too – for opposite is the famous Karsino, on Tagg's Island".

In popular culture

The inside of the hotel was used in the filming of the Billy Boy gang fight in

Stanley Kubrick Stanley Kubrick (; July 26, 1928 – March 7, 1999) was an American film director, producer, screenwriter, and photographer. Widely considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, his films, almost all of which are adaptations of nove ...

's 1971 movie ''

A Clockwork Orange ''A Clockwork Orange'' may refer to: * ''A Clockwork Orange'' (novel), a 1962 novel by Anthony Burgess ** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (film), a 1971 film directed by Stanley Kubrick based on the novel *** ''A Clockwork Orange'' (soundtrack), the film ...

''. The theatre of the Karsino was used in

Tommy Steele Sir Thomas Hicks (born 17 December 1936), known professionally as Tommy Steele, is an English entertainer, regarded as Britain's first teen idol and rock and roll star. After being discovered at the 2i's Coffee Bar in Soho, London, Steele reco ...

's 1971 TV film 'In Search of Chaplin.' The Karsino is referenced in the original lyrics of

Jack Buchanan Walter John Buchanan (2 April 1891 – 20 October 1957) was a Scottish theatre and film actor, singer, dancer, producer and director. He was known for three decades as the embodiment of the debonair man-about-town in the tradition of George G ...

's "Battling Butler" (renamed

Battling Buttler ''Battling Buttler'' is a musical in three acts with music by Philip Braham and a book and lyrics by Stanley Brightman, Austin Melford and Douglas Furber, which opened in London in 1922. It was then greatly revised by Walter L. Rosemont (music) ...

for its transfer to the US ), where the song "Dancing Honeymoon" alludes to the ''"old Karsino / We know on the Isle of Tagg"''.

External links

'Eccentric Club Entertain Wounded Soldiers'
1916,

British Film Institute The British Film Institute (BFI) is a film and television charitable organisation which promotes and preserves film-making and television in the United Kingdom. The BFI uses funds provided by the National Lottery to encourage film production, ...

archive.

References

{{LB Richmond 1912 establishments in England 1972 disestablishments in England Hotel buildings completed in 1912 Resorts in the United Kingdom Defunct resorts Hotels disestablished in 1972