Partner Dolly Myer, Carmel Stuart
Queer Places:
The Music Box, 4 Leicester St, London WC2H 7BL, UK
Romilly’s Club, 11 Orange St, London WC2H 0EP, UK
The Colony Room, 41 Dean St, London W1D 4PY, UK
Muriel Belcher (Edgbaston, 1908–1979) was the founder and proprietress of a private drinking club known as The Colony Room (also known as Muriel's) at 41 Dean Street, Soho, London.
Belcher is the subject of several paintings, including Seated Woman (Portrait of Muriel Belcher) by Francis Bacon, which was sold at Sotheby's in Paris in December 2007 for €13.7 million.[1]
In December 1948 Muriel Belcher opens a private drinking club known as the Colony Room. She had previously run The Sphinx with partner Dolly Myer from 1936 or 37 and then The Music Box at 4 Leicester Street (off Leicester Square). The latter appears in phone books from 1941. Francis Bacon painted Belcher as a Sphinx on one occasion. Some accounts give Dolly’s name as Mayer (Myer was Muriel’s father’s first name). Muriel and Dolly fell out and Dolly moved to Romilly’s Club at 11 Orange Street. She ended up being pushed down stairs, possibly in an argument over her bisexual liasons, by husband Alf. Romilly’s was actually the re-named Le Boeuf Sur Le Toit, the most luxurious and fashionable ‘gay’ club in wartime London known in the 1930s as ‘Molly’s’. It had been run by Teddy Ashton and the resident pianist was Leonard Brackett (a veteran West End composer and cabaret performer). Francis Bacon’s big passion Peter Lacy knew both women, went to Romilly’s and played piano later at the Colony; he was also a friend of the Music Box’s pianist Hugh Lane.
Muriel Belcher by Francis Bacon
Belcher’s girlfriend Carmel Stuart (possibly Stewart?) and Francis Bacon gambolled together; Bacon, sent along by Brian Howard, drank free at the Colony in return for introducing new members. Carmel was of Jamaican ‘colonial’ heritage and it has been suggested that was why it was called the ‘Colony Room’. As Sophie Parkin has recounted the club had probably already acquired the name in order to attract those from British Colonial territories. The racial identity of Belcher has also been misconstrued: she was not Jewish or Portuguese but English/Welsh. Daniel Farson asked Belcher about the sex of her lovers and she replied “I’m glad to say plenty of both!” but evidence suggests mostly women. The club aspect allowed it to serve member’s outside normal licencing hours which were, at that time, antisocial, especially if you were a an irregular member of society. Pubs in England and Wales were mostly 11:00 a.m. till 3:00p.m., followed by an afternoon break; then for the evening, it was 6:00 p.m. till 10:30 p.m. Soho habitués were adept at finding places for out of hours or get round the rules. Serving food or ordering crates of bottles ahead of closing time were two methods. Clubs were more conducive to queers: private membership implied you were a part of the crowd.
Francis Bacon was a founding member of the Colony Room, walking in the day after it opened in 1948. He was "adopted" by Belcher as a "daughter" and allowed free drinks and £10 a week to bring in friends and rich patrons. The club had a certain notoriety for its decor as well as its clientele; its bilious green walls were as famous as the club itself. In addition to its vile colour, the staircase that led to the establishment was described as foul-smelling and flanked by dustbins. The Room was operated by Belcher between opening and her death in 1979. The Museum of London website says of the Colony Room, "The Colony Room was one of many drinking clubs in Soho. The autocratic and temperamental owner Muriel Belcher created an ambiance which suited those who thought of themselves as misfits or outsiders."[2] Her sexuality attracted many gay men to the club, many of them brought to the club by her Jamaican girlfriend, Carmel Stuart. She had a knack for attracting or discovering interesting and colourful people, and the patronage of men like Melly and Bacon helped to establish the Colony Room's close-knit community. Lady Rose McLaren, one of Bacon's friends, was a habituée of the club in her London days. In line with the camp atmosphere of the club, men would often be referred to in the feminine. However, Belcher was also famous for her rudeness, a trait which rubbed off onto the club and became part of its culture. Her favourite word was "cunt",[3] and this she delivered in distinctive and ringing tones. According to Belcher, "cunt" was a term of abuse, "cunty" a term of affection. Her ultimate accolade and sign of acceptance was the endearment "Mary". According to Christopher Hitchens: Muriel, arguably the rudest person in England ("shut up cunty and order some more champagne"), almost never left her perch at the corner of the bar and was committed to that form of humour that insists on referring to all gentlemen as ladies. Occasionally this routine was still funny. "Yes," she would screech if someone mentioned the London Blitz, "that was when we were all fighting that nasty Mrs Hitler." O'Toole's favourite was a rejoinder she made when he'd described some ancient and absent member as a bit of a bore. "He was a very brave lady," insisted Muriel, "in the First World War!" After Belcher's death, the club continued under the stewardship of her long-term barman Ian Board, known as Ida, until his death in 1994. In turn, it then passed to his veteran barman Michael Wojas, and from him to Dick Bradsell. Until it closed, the Colony Room remained popular with artists of all types, in particular those who have come to be known as Young British Artists (YBAs), including Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Tracey Emin. Belcher was portrayed by Tilda Swinton in the 1999 film Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon.
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