In the summer of 1966 there was no better place to enjoy a night of outright debauchery than at Lionel Bart’s house. The composer of the West End musicals Fings Ain’t Wot They Used T’Be and Oliver! lived in a mansion, nicknamed The Fun Palace, in Fulham, West London.
Bart’s parties were famous for their extravagance and the calibre of his guests: Princess Margaret, The Beatles, Joan Collins and members of the World Cup-winning England football squad were among the guests who drank and danced the night away in 1966. Anyone so inclined could also make good use of the Fun Palace’s many well-appointed bedrooms, help themselves from a bowl of drugs kept in the hallway, or visit Lionel’s secret sauna accessed via a dummy wardrobe.
