The Toucan

Prior to being the pub we all know and love as The Toucan, 19 Carlisle Street has been a legendary Soho spot for decades. Back in the 60’s, the premises was a Greek restaurant called La Roca, known in the area by day for its immaculate greek cuisine. By night, the restaurant was famous for it’s evenings of music in the basement. Three nights a week in 1966, the basement bar hosted a disco called Knuckles Bar run by Viv Prince (who was also the drummer of The Pretty Things). As the hang out spot grew in popularity among the average London musician, Knuckles Bar became the underground go-to place for anyone trying to break into the entertainment business. In October of 1966, manager Chas Chandler (the drummer of The Animals) introduced a fresh faced Jimi Hendrix to the tiny Soho bar. That evening, Jimi jammed with the trio that was performing called Deep Feeling featuring Jim Capaldi & Dave Mason — a trio who went on to form the band Traffic.

27 years later in December of 1993, Colin Taylor, who now owns the famous Soho Guinness bar, first began working at 19 Carlisle Street. At this date the premises was occupied by a take away sandwich bar and café, called As You Like It. The original owner of the space had continued operating the bar in the basement, however changed the iconic name from Knuckles Bar to Buzz’s Bar. Buzz was bothered by the lack of good Guinness in central London in the 90s, and therefore set up a haven for Guinness enthusiasts to get a proper pint of the black stuff in Soho.

As it turned out, Buzz’s Bar quickly found itself in trouble, so Colin agreed to become a partner of the business to try and save it from closure. To clear Buzz’s debts, Colin applied to take over the licence for the basement bar whilst keeping the sandwich bar and café open on the ground floor. The license was transferred to Colin’s name in June 1994, and The Toucan was born.