Crab Tree Club

The Crab Tree Club was a nightclub in Greek Street, Soho, London, that was established by the painter Augustus John in April 1914 with the financial support of Thomas Scott-Ellis (Lord Howard de Walden). John wrote to his friend John Quinn, "We are starting a new club in town called the 'Crab-tree' for artists, poets and musicians... It ought to be amusing and useful at times". The club was a popular meeting place for London bohemians immediately before the First World War who would descend en-masse on the Crab Tree after the Café Royal closed for the night.

The club was above an R & J Pullman leather warehouse at 17 Greek Street, and was reached by climbing several flights of wooden stairs which was unusual as London clubs were more often subterranean.

The clientele and members included Jacob Epstein, Augustus John, William Marchant (Director of the Goupil Gallery), Walter Sickert, Euphemia Lamb, Harold Gilman, Paul Nash, Carlo Norway, Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, Compton Mackenzie, a young Jean Rhys who almost lived there, journalists including "Mr Gossip" who wrote for The Sketch, shopkeepers, students from the nearby Slade School of Art and assorted artists and artist's models.

Paul Nash remembered that at the launch party Augustus John arrived extremely drunk while everyone else was still "sober and bored" but by 4.00 AM, according to Mark Gertler, the party had got going and John "expressed a desire to be married then & there to all the women present."

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