Photographer's note: 'Across Oxford Street from Soho and hidden away down a simple staircase in the dark basement of a 1920s office block, the 100 Club epitomises the type of gritty trad jazz and folk ‘cellars’ that rose to prominence in post-war London. But its origins go back further, to 1942, when a Sunday night swing club, Feldman’s Swing Club, opened in a basement restaurant called Macks at 100 Oxford Street. By 1949 the club had become the Jazz Club, or London Jazz Club, and by 1951 the Humphrey Lyttelton Club. Roger Horton, father of the current owner Jeff Horton, took over the premises in 1964 and renamed it, presumably after its address - though legend has it that the name was also a sly reference to the club’s small capacity – though today that is now 350. It later became famous for nurturing the punk scene with the Sex Pistols. The list of now world-famous names who have appeared on the 100 Club’s tiny stage is astonishing, from Louis Armstrong, Humphrey Lyttelton and Stan Tracey, to Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, Jimi Hendrix, the Rolling Stones, the Kinks and Bob Dylan, and in more recent years The Jam, Paul Weller, Metallica, Blur, Oasis, Doves, Muse, The Fall and Squarepusher.'
This is part of the Volume: VF000354 Survey of London: Oxford Street; within the Series: EHC01/095 Survey of London; within the Collection: EHC01 English Heritage(EH):Archive
© Historic England Archive
Photographer: Redgrave, Christopher: Historic England
Nightclub
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