ON THIS DAY IN EAST END HISTORY... October 5th 1983 Alternative cabaret comes to Bethnal Green. Harry King was a lovely bloke who lived almost his entire life at the Approach Tavern in Approach Road, E2. He was born there in 1922 and almost died there too, when a German bomb scored a direct hit in the war and took out two thirds of his parent’s pub. Rebuilt, you could hardly see the join. When Harry took over as landlord it was still a locals local, also popular with Labour Party people due its proximity to the old town hall and propensity for lock-ins. On one wall a framed Victorian poster announced a ‘Smoking concert’ was once held upstairs, starring ‘Witty Willis’. In the early eighties it was joined by a blu-tacked one announcing that ‘The First Friday Approach’ a monthly alternative cabaret club, run by the Tower Hamlets Arts Project was to continue the tradition. Harry let us the room for nothing and soon our events were packing in crowds so big it was a good job there was never a fire. Micheal Myers performed there (when he was half of Mullarky and Myers) and Harry Enfield (when he was half of Dusty and Dick.) The Greatest Show On Legs stuck their willies through photo’s of Maggie Thatcher, and we put on local poets and performers too, discovering lovable cockney scamp Lee Hurst, who later took over the club. One night, in sheer madness, I booked three comedians, an eight piece ska band and a troupe of jiving Lindyhoppers. They ran in, did one dance, then ran out again, without any of us acknowledging this had happened. Harry took all of this madness in his stride, as only a man running a highly profitable fire trap could do. Of course times and cabaret circuits change. Comedy became corporate and the last time I saw Harry he was at the opening night of the now nationally famous Lee Hurst’s purpose built club, ‘The Backyard’. Soon afterwards Harry retired and the old Approach Tavern retired too. The new Approach Tavern has gastropub food and an art gallery in the room where Malcolm Hardy once got his dick out. But the poster for Witty Willis remains, alongside a respectful display of photographs of Harry King becoming history.
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 10:24:13 +0000