The Comedy Store is a comedy club located in Soho, London, England. It was opened in 1979 by Don Ward and Peter Rosengard.

Venue: The Comedy Store
Town: London, GB

The Comedy Store is a comedy club located in Soho, London, England. It was opened in 1979 by Don Ward and Peter Rosengard. Since 16 January 1925, David Pax Tennant's Gargoyle private members' club had leased the three top floors of 69 Dean Street, Soho, London (at the corner with Meard Street). In 1952, Tennant sold the Gargoyle as a going concern for £5,000 to caterer John Negus. In 1955, the club was sold to Michael Klinger and Jimmy Jacobs, who relaunched it as a strip club called the Nell Gwynne (variously advertised as a theatre, club, or revue). A 1960s ad shows the club as the Nell Gwynne by day and the Gargoyle Club at night. In 1978, Peter Rosengard was on holiday with his wife Irkku in Los Angeles. "We had nothing to do one night, so I asked the concierge and he recommended the Comedy Store. At the time there was no live comedy in the UK, apart from working men's clubs up north, which was not really my scene. I loved what I saw in LA, so decided to open one in London, despite everybody telling me I was nuts." In 1979, the Gargoyle's upper rooms took in a varied series of weekly themed club-nights, in addition to the long-running Nell Gwynne Revue strip show. Don Ward said Rosengard could use his premises on Saturday nights. But it was also a strip club with topless barmaids, which Peter had to explain when comedians came to audition. On Saturdays, beginning 19 May 1979, in the Gargoyle's rooftop club space Hammersmith-born insurance salesman Peter Rosengard started a weekly club-night on Saturdays called the Comedy Store, in partnership with comedian Don Ward. It was open mic, in a Gong Show format, and invited audiences to show approval or disapproval of the unknown acts performing by "gonging" them off. There was no toilet in the dressing room, and male and female comedians used the sink. "On 19 May 1979, only sixteen days after Margaret Thatcher’s first general election victory, a new comedy club opened in London, hosted in a Soho topless bar named the