The latest book by Darren Coffield, Hen: Mistress of Mayhem - A Portrait of Henrietta Moraes, explores the riotous (and tragic) life of the late model, muse and memoirist. In this extract, the author sets the scene as Moraes settles into Soho, making friends with the infamous barkeep, Gaston Berlemont.
The French House (then the York Minster) was a regular haunt of Henrietta Moraes when she arrived in London. Image: Londonist
When Henrietta first arrived in 1950s bohemia, Soho was still a village in the West End of London.
Its hub was the French pub, formerly known as the York Minster, now officially named The French House, but forever known as 'the French' to the locals. Of all the surviving pubs, the French is still the truest to the spirit of Soho: no fruit machine, no jukebox to drown the conversation and definitely no television.
For someone who led such an unconventional lifestyle, Henrietta's days fell into a set pattern. They would usually begin late morning when she'd leave the attic of the Queen Anne house at the top of Dean Street (where she lived) and amble south down the road with her boyfriend, Michael Law, until they reached the Café Torino on the corner of Old Compton Street. The place reeked of old rubber and disinfectant as a long sticky strip of paper swayed from a central light fitting, brown with glue and black-dotted with dead flies. Here they sat at one of the marble-topped tables listening to Spanish anarchists and Republicans discussing how to overthrow Spain's fascist dictator Franco. It was nicknamed 'The Madrid' and became a favourite haunt of Hen's because the café sat betwixt the Colony and the Gargoyle clubs, from which vantage point she could observe the familiar faces of her quarry going by. It also commanded a clear view of the French, so Hen and Michael would wait at the café to watch the pub fill up before entering the premises by the left-hand door.
