soho clarion - The Soho Society

Page 6
Memories of Soho - The Interval Club ner of Berwick Street
I arrived in Soho in
August 1960, having just
toured Wales in a play
called ‘Have a Cigarette’
by Saunder Lewis, set in
post-war Vienna. Playing
the lead was Anthony
Hopkins, he was 23; it was
his first professional paid
engagement and the rest is
history!
I headed straight for the
Interval Club at 22 Dean
Street, situated just between
the New Soho Theatre
and the Quovadis restaurant.
This was a residential
club for catholic
actors. The club was originally
opened at 2 Soho
Square in 1926 by the
mother of Molly Balvaired
Hewitt MBE; who ran it
after her mother died. She
charged me three guineas
full board – a snip in 1960.
The building, which she
first used in 1937, was
Georgian with various additions.
It had a small
theatre on the first floor
with a round medallion of
Molly’s mother knitting,
over the proscenium arch.
Several residents were
spooked by this, swearing
she was seen doing one
plain, one purl at various
scary moments. On the
second floor was the long
dining room with billiard
table, snack bar and TV
room. The residential
quarters were mainly on
the third floor with the sole
bathroom. On this level
there was an exquisite oval
room used as a bedroom…
a Georgian gem with a tiny
Doric frieze. In the ancient
attic I found an itinerant
painting, in oil, of Sir Walter
Scott which I still possess.
There was also an annex to
the club, across the road at
80a, but it had a dreadful
malevolent atmosphere,
maybe from its 18 th century
past. The main building, at
22 Dean Street, was originally
run by Gainsborough’s
brother, as a coaching
inn – or so the story
goes.
Molly Balvaired Hewitt, a
strong character in her
early 80s once told the
Queen Mother, who rang
from Carlton House ‘I’m
sorry ducky, it’s lunch time
and I am far too busy to
talk to you’. She also never
minded two actors sharing
a room – ‘Why dear, that’s
all right. They can’t have
babies.’
Auditions were held in the
theatre by repertory companies,
Joan Littlewood,
the Royal Shakespeare
Company etc etc. Tuesdays
were set aside for the
Tuesday girls, being a mixture
of old actresses and
chorus girls of a certain
age, playing bridge, gossiping
and all mad keen on
tennis and Wimbledon –
woe betide you if you were
found sitting in the TV
room. There were many
talks and plays in the theatre,
even Cardinal Griffin
had attended one of the
many retreats there. The
club was warm, homely
and great for meeting
friends and getting work
through the grapevine. We
were always skint but
managed to make ends
meet by doing odd jobs or
working backstage on musicals
like Flower Drum
Song and Sound of Music.
Many, many stars had
stayed or lunched at the
Interval Club over the
years, including Rex Harrison
and Anna Neagle before
the war and James
Mason during. All subject
to Molly’s eccentric menus,
written on an ancient typewriter
– as examples
‘steamed god and chips’
with ‘apple pie and cows
turd’.
Ah well, all good things
come to an end. I finally
left in 1962 in an old Citroen
car, to reside in a flat
over a disused pub in
D’Arblay Street on the cor-
where lived Miss Elizabeth
Hoare, the niece of Sir Alex
Douglas Hume, the then
Prime Minister, and her
tale of the Funeral Train –
Ah! But that’s another
story.
The charming Interval
Club was demolished in
1962. The club moved finally
to 63 Frith Street,
where it closed in 1965.
Dear Molly died in the late
1960s and at her funeral,
attended by many famous
actors, her coffin came
down the aisle in St Patricks,
Soho Square at a tilt
like the Titanic, unbelievably
the pall bearers at the
back were 6’ 5” and at the
from 5’ 6”.
Of course the flowers slid
off and Marie Lohr looked
at me and said ‘this is simply
unbelievable’, but then
we all laughted with this
lady we had all loved so
much. What an exit!
DEREK HUNT
The Interval Club, No 2 Soho Square, Fancy dress ball 1928, with Molly and her mother below in
white lace; also Anna Neagle and Stuart Robertson