The Comedy Store (London)

The Comedy Store is a comedy club located in Soho, London, England, opened in 1979 by Don Ward and Peter Rosengard.

Since 16 January 1925 David Tennant's Gargoyle private members' club had leased the three top floors of 69 Dean Street, Soho, London (at the corner with Meard Street). In 1952 David Tennant sold the Gargoyle as a going concern for £5,000 to caterer John Negus. In 1955 the club was sold on to Michael Klinger and Jimmy Jacobs who relaunched it as a strip club called the Nell Gwynne (variously advertised as a theatre, club, or revue). A 1960s ad shows the club as the Nell Gwynne by day and the Gargoyle Club at night.

In 1978, Peter Rosengard was on holiday with his wife Irkku in Los Angeles.

"We had nothing to do one night, so I asked the concierge and he recommended the Comedy Store. At the time there was no live comedy in the UK, apart from working men's clubs up north, which was not really my scene. I loved what I saw in LA, so decided to open one in London, despite everybody telling me I was nuts."

In 1979, the Gargoyle's upper rooms took in a varied series of weekly themed club-nights, in addition to the long-running Nell Gwynne Revue strip show. Don Ward said Rosengard could use his premises on Saturday nights. But it was also a strip club with topless barmaids, which Peter had to explain when comedians came to audition.

On Saturdays, beginning 19 May 1979, in the Gargoyle's rooftop club space Hammersmith-born insurance salesman Peter Rosengard started a weekly club-night on Saturdays called the Comedy Store, in partnership with comedian Don Ward. It was open mic, in a Gong Show format, and invited audiences to show approval or disapproval of the unknown acts performing by "gonging" them off. There was no toilet in the dressing room, and male and female comedians used the sink.

"On 19 May 1979, only sixteen days after Margaret Thatcher’s first general election victory, a new comedy club opened in London, hosted in a Soho topless bar named the Gargoyle, accessed through the Nell Gwynne strip club in Dean Street. The Comedy Store was the brainchild of insurance salesman Peter Rosengard, who teamed up with local businessman Don Ward, having been inspired by the Los Angeles Comedy Store while on holiday."

"In the old days, there was a cross-over between stripping and comedy. 69 Dean Street was the Nell Gwynne strip club until about 11 o’clock and then it suddenly turned into The Comedy Store. When it got successful, they stopped doing the stripping on Friday and Saturday and they did two comedy shows – an 8 o’clock and a midnight. If you were on the circuit then, you’d do first act in the first house at the Comedy Store, then go off and do a pub in Stoke Newington or wherever, then rush back and do second or third on the bill in the second show at the Comedy Store. If you were good, you were working in more than one place. Everyone worked round each other and there was a cross-over between street acts and alternative acts"
Philip Herbert