Modern Notoriety · Twickenham, Greater London
Eel Pie Island
The Thames island whose sprung-floor hotel ballroom hosted the Rolling Stones, the Yardbirds, the Who and a generation of British rhythm and blues. The club closed in 1967; after a brief revival and a hippy commune, the hotel burned down in 1971.
The story
This little island in the Thames at Twickenham had a decaying Victorian hotel with a ballroom on a bouncing sprung floor, built in 1898. From 1956 it became one of the crucibles of British rock and R&B. Under promoter Arthur Chisnall, the Rolling Stones held a Wednesday residency; the Yardbirds, the Who, Rod Stewart, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton and, later, Pink Floyd and David Bowie all played the hall. The floor bounced the dancers in time with the music — "an automatic sex machine", one musician called it.
The police closed the hotel in 1967 over a £200,000 repair bill. It reopened briefly in 1969 as Colonel Barefoot's Rock Garden before a large hippy commune took over the crumbling building, burning the floorboards for fuel. In 1971, with demolition looming, it burned down in a still-unexplained fire. The island is now a private colony of artists' studios and boatyards, open to visitors only a couple of weekends each year.
More stories at this spot
Sources
- Wikipedia
- Snopes
- Wikipedia, "The Rolling Stones' Redlands bust"
- West Sussex Record Office blog
- NME, Marianne Faithfull obituary
- London Museum, "Twickenham's Eel Pie Island"
- Eel Pie Island Museum
Nearby on the map
Henry VIII's pleasure palace, where he honeymooned with Anne Boleyn, married Jane Seymour's successor rites and learned — at Mass, by letter — of Catherine Howard's alleged adultery. Her ghost is said to run shrieking down the Haunted Gallery towards the chapel where her husband prayed.
Documented historyHot spotScandal & SocietyMerton Place (Nelson & Emma Hamilton)London, Greater London · EnglandThe villa Nelson bought so he could live openly with Emma Hamilton — while her husband Sir William completed the most famous ménage à trois of the age under the same roof. England's hero left Merton for Trafalgar in 1805; Emma, ruined by his death, lost the house within four years.
Documented historyHot spotNotable LandmarksThe Gateways ClubLondon, Greater London · EnglandBehind a green door at 239 King's Road, the Gateways became what English Heritage calls London's best-known and longest-lived lesbian social venue. It introduced a women-only policy in 1967, closed in September 1985, and received an English Heritage blue plaque on 2 July 2025.
Documented historyHot spotSpotted an error, or hold a better source? Write to marquis@marquisdemayfair.com — corrections are made, never defended. Our methodology.