A talk on Francis Bacon’s friend, Olwen Vaughan, proprietor of Le Petit Club Francais and Secretary of the New London Film Society. Focusing on the role of cinema in Francis Bacon’s art, followed by a screening of Bacon’s other favourite film, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari.

Isabel Rawsthorne, was a British painter, scenery and costume designer, and occasional artists' model for Francis Bacon, Picasso, Jacob Epstein, Alberto Giacometti and Derain, to name a few During the Second World War she worked in black propaganda and became ‘His Majesty’s Pornographer’.

Poetry reading event with Markus Witte followed by a party celebrating the original Colony Room Club’s 76th Birthday.

A snapshot of the Colony Room Club (1948 -2008) and its habitués: Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Dylan Thomas, George Melly, Damien Hirst, Peter O’Toole, Lisa Stansfield, Tracey Emin, Michael Andrews, and Jeffrey Bernard.

Catherine Shakespeare Lane in conversation with Darren Coffield on Francis Bacon’s ‘Mother’ and proprietor of the Colony Room, Muriel Belcher. Muriel Belcher (1908–1979) was an English nightclub owner who founded and managed the private drinking club, the Colony Room. Muriel was the model and muse for a number of paintings, including several by Francis Bacon. She was also famous for her rudeness, which rubbed off onto the club and became part of its culture.

Henrietta Moraes is one of those key post-war Soho figures, a prototype Rock ‘N’ Roll wild child, whom everyone has heard of but knows little about. Together with Maggi Hambling we will explore the enigma of Henrietta Moraes.

Exhibition of  witty and amusing collages with a Christmas theme by Clive Jennings.

Everyone Is Watching is a story about the people who have defined New York through their lives, perspectives and iconic works. New York itself solidifies; complex, rich, sordid, tantalizing, it is constantly changing and evolving.

Darkness looms in 1974. It could be the winter energy crisis. It could be The Exorcist. Or it could be the shock that Britain’s biggest pop star, David Bowie, is about to leave its shores for good. Bidding the corpse of glam, Ziggy’s haircut and loyal ‘Bowietania’ farewell, the plan is to storm America with his highly theatrical Diamond Dogs tour. But by opening night he’s already wishing he was Barry White instead. Then there’s that nasty sniff he can’t get rid of. And that fly in his milk. And the suspicion that, much like every other teen idol named David, fame is driving him completely out of his mind … Simon Goddard’s electric ride through Bowie’s greatest decade reaches the halfway mark with this fifth instalment. Wickedly funny and shockingly tragic, Bowie Odyssey 74 is the story of one man trying to find his soul in a world that’s gone to the devil.

Saltwater and Milk Teeth 

Jessica Andrews in conversation with Lilian Pizzichini

 Jessica Andrew's work explores intersections of social class and gender in relation to the body. Her debut novel, Saltwater won the Portico Prize in 2020 and her second novel, Milk Teeth was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature Encore Award in 2023. She co-runs literary and arts magazine, The Grapevine and co-presents literary podcast, Tender Buttons. She is a Lecturer in Creative Writing at City University, London.

 Lilian Pizzichini's non-fiction includes The Blue Hour and Dead Men’s Wages. She is working on a novel called Maybe, the story of a city and an ageing female artist.

SCARLETT GREEN MONTHLY

DOORS AT 7:30pm, £14pp

Daisy Green is thrilled to present the cream of the comedy crop, live in the Down Under Lounge at Scarlett Green. Witness some of the very best comedians in the world fresh from the stage at Edinburgh Fringe and the best comedy clubs in the UK.

BOOK HERE

Dating is not what it used to be. But Sasha and Laura have high hopes.

'They wrote to the paper, took out a personal ad.

Neither's a poet, but they had to do what they had.

An art show in London, let's cut through this red tape.

At a bar called the Colony, they plan their escape...'

A performance by Sasha Bowles and Laura Moreton-Griffiths in conjunction with Sasha's solo exhibition WATCHING YOU / watching me

COLONY ROOM GREEN

6.30 pm – 8pm Admission free.

Caroline Wise, an expert in strange phenomena, co-authored *Here Comes the Candle: A Photographic Summoning of London Ghosts* with photographer Ruth Bayer. She has worked in esoteric publishing, republishing occultist Kenneth Grant's works, and was editor of *The Occult Observer*. Caroline researches ancient goddesses and London mythology and lectures internationally on these topics.

Ruth Bayer, an Austrian-born photographer, captures images inspired by London ghost stories. Her work has been widely exhibited and featured in music and occult publications. She also runs a Gardnerian Wiccan coven in London.

COLONY ROOM GREEN

6.30 pm – 8pm Admission free.

A true tale of escaping 1970s Liverpool and living the life of a bohemian in a squat in Amsterdam featuring Gregory Corso, William Burroughs & Co.

Liverpool-based screenwriter and playwright Jeff Young is one of the BBC's most experienced radio dramatists (with over 25 radio plays broadcast in the last 20 years). In recent years he has also begun writing for film and television, having completed the BBC Writers Academy, and his credits include CASUALTY, DOCTORS, EASTENDERS, HOLBY CITY and STEPPING UP. Jeff's stage work includes plays for Liverpool Everyman, Kneehigh and Bristol Old Vic, and he wrote a major stage adaptation of The Who's QUADROPHENIA which toured the UK in 2009.

Jeff's acclaimed memoir GHOST TOWN was shortlisted for the Costa Biography Award in 2021.