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Catherine Howe’s new book is a study of the history and denizens of 59 Greek Street, a landmark building in London’s Soho district which famously provided a club and lodgings for young women working in the city’s businesses and theatres. Nine flats will be let at affordable rents along with a three bed penthouse apartment for market letting. But of course we couldn’t get in – one of the best things about the bar behind the bookcase is that they don’t ever let it get crowded. The scheme involves the conversion of an existing basement to 4 th floor 8,800sf building into eight residential flats, one penthouse residential apartment with ground floor and basement commercial space. Choat chuckles when I tell him this, and assures me he won’t refurbish the Coach: “I like it as it is.

But she found a warm welcome: “That first summer there was this torrential rainfall and everyone got flooded, and we shared each other’s pain and helped each other. It’s a friendly place and not just for old men – the mix of people has never been greater and there’s even a vegetarian dining room upstairs now.

Her decision to open a club for young local women in the early 1880s coincides with the demolition of the Five Dials to make way for the Shaftesbury Avenue and Charing Cross Road development. Catherine Howe’s new book is a study of the history and denizens of the Theatre Girls Club at 59 Greek Street, a landmark building in London’s Soho district which famously provided a club and lodgings for young women working in the city’s businesses and theatres.

No one’ she wrote, ‘can tell the difficulty there is in finding work for a woman who has lost her character. Greek Street was first mentioned by its current name in 1679, taking its name from a Greek church from 1677 on Hog Lane (now Charing Cross Road) whose main entrance faced Greek Street – immigrants (French, Italian, Jewish, Greek and more) were plentiful in Soho at the time. Dick James signed the pair to his publishing company (famous for its Beatles catalog) and Elton to a management contract.

Greek Street, a large house near Soho Square at the heart of London’s west end, was first set up as a ‘club and home for working girls’, whose history is traced in these pages through personal memories. They were the first to bring single malt scotch into London – they used to go up to Scotland in a van and pick it up,” says Martyn “Simo” Simpson, who’s owned Milroy’s since 2014 which is when he opened The Vault.

The studio was frequented by David Bowie, the Beatles, Genesis, and Queen, amongst many other successful artists and bands in the 1970s. Elton played here over 25 times starting in December 1965 - first as a member of Bluesology, sometimes backing Long John Baldry, and then at the start of his own career. The series title BITCHES is a double entendre that speaks to the spirit of play and provocation present in these photographs of remarkable women and surprisingly glamourous dogs.

Immersing yourself in Soho’s bold spirit isn’t for everyone, as it’s a gritty, sometimes uncomfortable, pleasure: “This place will eat you alive if you want it to,” Simpson adds. KlappentextrnrnThe remarkable history of a landmark London building and it s role in giving young women a safe base in the teeming city as The Theatre Girls Club of Soho. The windows were swagged in oceans of red velvet curtains … there were discarded G-strings, used condoms, plastic chandeliers – all the tawdry remnants of a former strip club.His first performance billed as Elton John, with his own band (Caleb Quaye on guitar, Dee Murray on Bass, Dave Hynes on drums), took place here on 30 April 1968. The basement was formerly used by the theatre girls as a rehearsal space, but all the floors above have been gutted for modernisation.