Soho’s infamous Colony Room club is to be reborn as part of the five-star Dorchester hotel, W1.
The club, which boasted the cream of the art world, actors and even the Kray brothers among its clientele, closed in 2008. But the Dorchester now plans to resurrect it at its offshoot site at 45 Park Lane.
Darren Coffield, an artist who documented the history of the drinking club in his book Tales from the Colony Room, admitted that the hotel’s image was far from the “spit and sawdust” nature of the club, but said they shared a history.
The 45 Park Lane offshoot of the main hotel is on the site of the former Playboy Club, whose owner, Victor Lownes, was a Colony regular.
Coffield, who is acting as a consultant to the project, said it would be a challenge to recreate the club’s atmosphere, but he hoped it would attract former visitors, including the actor Daniel Craig, the musician Lisa Stansfield and members of the Young British Artists movement such as Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin.
