Uncomfortable inspiration: Bowie himself called the persona of the Thin White Duke “a very Aryan, fascist type”
(Picture: Getty Images)A new all-day bar, cafe and recording studio is set to open on Great Windmill Street in Soho later this month, named for one of David Bowie’s most controversial personas.
The Thin White Duke, which will open throughout the day and seven days a week, is hoping to become something of a local hub for music-oriented types. It comes from production designer Sasha Stamp and Giovanni Almonte, a musician.
Upstairs is a bar-cafe space, which will serve coffee, cicchetti and cocktails from former Gilbert Scott barman Dav Eames. Eames’ list includes a Bel-Air Boulevardier, which adds antica formula and absinthe to the whisky-riff on a Negroni; a Gin & Milk, which as the name suggests mixes gin with almond milk and white tea syrup; and one called the Lovers’ Eyes, where apple brandy is mixed with Aperol, rhubarb and ginger syrup and lemon.
Girls who Grind, the all-female roastery from Wiltshire, will supply the coffee.
This upstairs space, which will also function as room for customers to work in and in the evening will host talks, readings, screenings and workshops from artists and Thin White Duke members, leads to a basement below made up of two fully-equipped recording studios, with two control rooms and an overdub room. The site formerly housed the original Soho Radio site.
Design is said to be paramount to the opening. Bowie, or his influence, features throughout. In one studio will be a stained glass mural of the late singer, while the other, dubbed the Kyoto room, will sport a Japanese-inspired aesthetic, reflecting Bowie’s long-standing interest in Japan. The singer first started using Japanese-style design in his stage work in 1972, and it was a recurring theme throughout his career.
Upstairs will be Berlin-inspired in look; the city is often associated with the Thin White Duke character. The persona is an unusual one for the bar to associate with, as it is Bowie’s most controversial creation. Invented in 1976 and abandoned by 1977, two years in which Bowie is said to have been consumed by an intense addiction to cocaine, the Thin White Duke is uncomfortably associated with fascism, with the musician himself saying it was “a very Aryan, fascist type; a would-be romantic with absolutely no emotion at all but who spouted a lot of neo-romance.” The Duke has been described elsewhere as an “emotionless Aryan Superhuman,” and in 1976 Bowie is reported to have told Playboy magazine in an interview that “I believe very strongly in fascism.” He later expressed regret for the character and said he was, at the time, “out of my mind totally, completely crazed”. There is another bar in Carlisle also called the Thin White Duke.
Speaking of the opening, Stamp and Almonte said: “We are so excited to be opening The Thin White Duke on Great Windmill Street.
“It’s a special site in Soho, which we see as the epicentre of bohemian spirit and creativity in the UK music scene. We really want our guests to feel like they are entering not just another bar, but an immersive space — an inviting realm of surprise and inspiration.”
