Caravan Club
The Caravan was a gay club that opened in July 1934 at 81 Endell Street, Coventry Garden. Jack Neave, who ran several night clubs, had met William Reynolds who was looking to invest a recent inheritance. They rented the Endell Street basement for £300 from "one of the many shady estate agents in the West End who specialise in letting premises to shady clubs and prostitutes". They charged 1 shilling for membership or 6d (pence) on the door. Within six weeks it had 445 members and attracted 2004 visitors. It was decorated in an oriental style. Its advertisement flyer read:
After the day's routine pond you evening at
the caravan
81 Endell St.
Entrance in Court
(corner of Shaftesbury Avenue, facing Princes Theatre)
Phone: Temple Bar 7665
London's Greatest Bohemijan Rendezvous
said to be the most unconventional spot in town
All night gaiety – dancing to Charlie
Periodical night trips to the great open spaces, including the Ace of Spades, etc
Inside men could dance, kiss and have sex.
The Caravan was raided by police after letters from Holborn Council and ratepayers from Endell Street complained the the place was "frequented by sexual perverts, lesbians and sodomites... an absolute sink of iniquity, your prompt attention is respectfully craved". Then the London District Command accused the venue of corrupting service-men and had the place patrolled by the military police who tried to keep it out-of-bounds. Then came pressure from the Public Morality Council (PMC) who were surveying 25 venues by special request, and the Caravan was finally prosecuted in 1933, along with dance halls in Baker Street and Archer Street and a ball room in Holland Park Avenue. Betty had avoided previous conviction of her dances in 1932 in Baker Street and Archer Street on a previous occasion when she learned that plain clothes policemen were planning to attend – she cancelled the dances.
Other clubs and pubs popular with homosexuals at the time were the York Minster, Festival, Careless Stork, Boeuf sur Le Toit in Orange Street, the Arts and Battledress (also in Orange Street) the Swiss and the Marquis of Granby in Soho. Peter Wildeblood called them "less [than] discreet", rough and cruisy. Throughout the 1930s respectable men in evening dress and camp queans solicited sailors and workmen in the Running Horse. Other venues included the Billie's Club, the Hungry Horse, White Horse, Gerano's in New Compton Street, Chez Victor in Wardour Street. The downstairs bar at the Ritz Hotel was frequented by men from high society, nicknamed l’Abri (the shelter), the Trocadero Long Bar, the Criterion and Lyon's Corner Houses, Spartan in Tachbrook Street and Bennet's Festival.
References
Queer London – Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 Matt Houlbrook, The University of Chicago Press, 2005.