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Madame Jojo's - Live Music Venue in London

Madame Jojo's was a nightclub and venue for cabaret, burlesque, drag shows, and live music located on Brewer Street in the Soho area of the City of Westminster in the West End of London. It was opened in 1986 by Paul Raymond.

Venue
Madame Jojo's
Town
London, GB

Madame Jojo's was a nightclub and venue for cabaret, burlesque, drag shows, and live music located on Brewer Street in the Soho area of the City of Westminster in the West End of London. It was opened in 1986 by Paul Raymond. It closed in November 2014 due to its licence being revoked. After a new license was granted in December 2019, in July 2022 it was reported that the club would reopen in "spring 2023", however this failed to happen. In December 2024 local news outlets reported that an American company had applied for a license to open a two-floor strip club in the nightclub's former premises. Supporters of the club believed the decision to close the venue permanently was influenced by the local council's negative attitude toward the older, late-licence venues in the area and a desire to curb some of that nightlife. The building the nightclub is in was previously, from the late 1930s to the early 1970s, the basement bar Jack of Hearts, with restaurant Isow's upstairs. After that closed it was an adult movie theatre for a period. Madame Jojo's was opened in 1986 by magazine publisher and stripclub owner Paul Raymond. The club was named after drag performer Madame Jojo. She compèred the club until leaving in 1991. Raymond obtained an injunction to prevent the use of the stage name, so from then on she was billed as just Jojo. Jojo presided over a group of drag cabaret performers called The Barbettes, named after a character from The Blood of a Poet, who originally performed at the bar six nights a week. The club quickly became popular with parts of London's gay and trans communities. In 1995 a Drag King night and regular contest started being held at Madame Jojo's. The night was originally named Club Naive, then changed to Club Geezer. The club was used to shoot a scene in Stanley Kubrick’s 1999 film, Eyes Wide Shut. Indie club night and music promoters White Heat started at Jojo's on Tuesdays in 2005, they put on early concerts there for artists such as Lorde, Ja