The fashionable Kit Cat Club opened in London in 1925 and was located at the heart of the city’s West End theatre district on Haymarket, in the basement of the large and ornate Capitol Cinema. A members-only club, it was initially patronized by Royalty, politicians and aristocrats.

Facilities included a restaurant, Grill Room, American Bar, ballroom and library.

There were two types of dress code: members in ordinary attire could gather in the street level balcony area while members who wanted to dine and dance wore formal evening dress in the restaurants and ballroom two floors below. Décor was lavish, based on Italian Renaissance style, in colors of gold, ivory and blue and there was a house orchestra.

Celebrated cabaret stars like the Dolly Sisters, Hungarian-American identical twin dancers, singers and actresses popular in vaudeville in the early 1900s, were among the visiting acts, and the orchestra was led by Ted Lewis.

In 1927, the property became the Kit Kat Restaurant, allowing its doors to open to non-members. It became a popular nightspot and unofficial HQ for many Americans visiting Europe on Grand Tours.

The property changed management several times and this restaurant menu – with artist Lucy Dawson’s delightful rendering of a kitten – is dated 1931.

As you can see from the Carte du Diner, it was fashionable at the time for menus is high class establishments to be entirely in French. This was an extensive menu and a costly place to dine.

The Gaumont film company, established in France in 1895, acquired the theatre chain Gaumont-British which later notably produced several films directed by Alfred Hitchcock such as the 39 Steps (1935) and The Lady Vanishes (1938).

Struggling to compete with the advent of ‘talkies,’ the company invested in the Kit Cat Restaurant but declared bankruptcy in 1935.

We believe the Kit Kat Club closed in the late 1930s and the venue was destroyed during a German bombing raid in World War 2.