RAYMOND REVUE BAR - Soho Revue Bar - Too 2 Much
Design of a 3 storey nightclub and live music venue.
Former Raymond Revue Bar has seen a dramatic refurbishment over the last few months. This complicated 3 storey nightclub has seen a rigorous yet sensitive layering of contemporary style and function onto it’s historic and romantic heart, compromising or destroying either. The design process resembled archiology at times, with discoveries altering the course of events as the layers of time were pealed back.
The design process had to be flexible and fluid, dealing with the complexities and intricacies of a delapidated and rotting shell and a low budget.
Client: Too 2 Much Ltd
Location: Walkers Court, Soho London
Design Team: Steve Jensen.
Our hostess, 'Miss' Kimberley, a foxy Diana Ross lookalike, shows us to a booth at this reinvented Soho burlesque joint. Housed in the former Raymond's Revue Bar, the original art deco interior and general Liza Minnelli/Cabaret cod-decadent vibe survive.
Tiered seating overlooks the dancefloor action, as a cast of Queer Eye For The Straight Guy wannabes gyrate to thumpy-humpy house, spurred on by a high-kicking Claudia-Schiffer-the-rough-years drag queen and a scantily clad Dan-from-Big-Brother'slittlebrother pole dancer.
The good-natured atmosphere is somewhat marred by a phalanx of high-profile security men dressed up as FBI agents. Is George Bush in the house? Not tonight. But old coppertop Cilla Black and her camp coterie are fans, I'm told.
Flirty waiter service delivers honestly priced, confident cocktails. At £6.50, a fair Long Beach Tea is a bargain, but the date's Blue Cheese Martini is an experiment too far - an iffy, whiffy, Dolcelatte novelty with all the allure of Lily Savage's used tights.
There's a gloriously tacky mirrored bar upstairs, where you can get to know that Rimmel demonstrator from Allders in Croydon you just pulled. Given the pre-publicity's promise of 'polyamorous indulgence', this hardened clubber anticipated the excesses of Studio 54 and Taboo or, at the very least, a Frankie Goes To Hollywood video shoot. But, although this fluffy entertainment is good fun, I found Too 2 Much a trifle Too 2 vanilla in essence. Keith Barker-Main
11-12 Walker's Court W1. Tel: 020 7734 0377. Tube: Piccadilly Circus
Too 2 Much
11-12 Walker's Court, W1
the 1 too many
the 2 too much
the way through
the see through
the stage set
the set up
the bees round
the honey pot
the over the top
the top heavy
the hidden extra
the extra helping
the change of scene
the change that will do you good
the fish to fry
the fly by night
the chosen few
the chosen with you in mind
the light at the end
the end of the night
the 1 too many
the many more where that came from
the armed to the teeth
the once bitten
the ready willing and able
the able bodied
the any body
