Les Ambassadeurs Club

The Les Ambassadeurs Club (popularly known as "Les A") is a club and casino located at 5 Hamilton Place in Mayfair, London.

For other uses, see Les Ambassadeurs.

The rear of Les Ambassadeurs Club from Park Lane

It was established in Hanover Square in 1941 by John Mills, and has had several owners since Mills’s sale of the club in 1981. The club moved to Hamilton Place in 1950. The Le Cercle casino was established at the club in 1961. The Milroy and Garrison nightclubs have also been based at 5 Hamilton Place. The club was portrayed in the inaugural James Bond film Dr. No and scenes from The Beatles' film A Hard Day's Night were filmed at the club.

History

The building at 5 Hamilton Place was built between 1807 and 1810 by Thomas Leverton and remodelled in the Venetian Renaissance style by W. R. Rogers of William Cubitt for Leopold de Rothschild.[1] Interior decoration in the Louis XV and fin de siècle style was completed by John Jackson, Mellier, Forsythe. The interior is noted for its fine workmanship including an oak staircase with excessively scrolled balustrade.[1] The woodwork in the library was completed in the Florentine studios of Chevalier Rinaldo Barbetti.[2] It is listed Grade II* on the National Heritage List for England.[1] The oval ceiling fresco in the Marble Room was painted by Edmund Thomas Parris in the 1830s.[3]

The main gaming floor of the club has sixteen tables where American roulette, baccarat, blackjack and Three Card Poker can be played. Roulette and more discreet games of cards can be played in the club's Marble Room.[3] The club has a garden area where players can smoke while placing their bets. The club's Red Room has a separate entrance at 6 Hamilton Place.[4][5]

Early years

Les Ambassadeurs was first opened on Hanover Square in 1941 by the Polish-born soldier and businessman John Mills (born Jean-Jean Millstein).[6][3] Mills also co-owned the Milroy Nightclub in Stratton Street in Mayfair with bandleader Harry Roy.[3][7] The club was memorably visited by actress Pat Kirkwood, accompanied by the high society photographer Baron and Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh in October 1948. The group dined at Les Ambassadeurs before dancing at the Milroy. Kirkwood danced with Philip, to the shock of onlookers, and this incurred the displeasure of King George VI.[8] Christopher Lee kept a bottle of gin with his name on it at the club.[9] The screenwriter Charles Bennett said of the Milroy in the Second World War that "Scotch whiskey and champagne flowed like the Niagara river rapids. Nero fiddled while Rome burned, and if there was death outside in darkest London, within the warmth and brilliance of the Milroy there was food, drink and dancing".[10]

The club refused to admit Jewish members until as late as 1943.[11]

Les Ambassadeurs and the Milroy were relocated to No. 5 Hamilton Place, off Park Lane, in 1950 with the lease bought for £40,000 (equivalent to £1,458,087 in 2021).[3] The band at the Milroy was led by Stephane Grappelli in the early 1950s.[3][12]

The Le Cercle gaming club for members of Les Ambassadeurs was established at the club in May 1961 after the passing of the Betting and Gaming Act 1960. The Garrison Room, a nightclub, was established in the basement of the building.[3] Mills was subsequently convicted in 1963 at Bow Street Magistrates' Court under the Betting and Gaming Act in a case involving the legality of charges imposed in Chemin de fer at Le Cercle but his appeal was successfully heard at the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice in December 1963 in Mills v. Mackinnon.[13] John Stanley, 18th Earl of Derby lost £165,000 in an evening gambling at the club in the 1960s. The extent of Derby's losses caused the souring of Mills's relationship with fellow casino owner John Aspinall, who had previously had Derby as a regular patron.[14] Le Cercle lost their gambling licence in 1978 following convictions against the company and a former manager for breaches of the gaming act.[15]

Recent years

Mills ran the casino until 1981 when the leasehold was bought by casino group London Clubs International. In 2006 Les Ambassadeurs was sold to the Indonesian businessman Putera Sampoerna for £115 million.[16] The freehold of 5 Hamilton Place was put up for sale for £50 million by the Crown Estate in 2012.[17] In 2016 it was announced that all the shares were to be purchased by Hong Kong listed Landing International Development Ltd. This move was designed to focus on the Asian market opportunities in London.[18] Les Ambassadeurs has since been sold to another Chinese business person, Paul Ho Chung Suen, who also owns Birmingham City F.C.[19]

Notable members of the club have included film producer Betty Box, bookmaker Victor Chandler, magician’s assistant Debbie McGee, football manager Alex Ferguson, businessman Philip Green, attorney general Michael Havers, Baron Havers, entrepreneurs Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz, and football agent Pini Zahavi.[16][20][21] The negotiations for José Mourinho to become the manager of Chelsea F.C. took place at the club in 2004 between Mourinho, his agent Jorge Mendes, and Zahavi.[22] In 2004 Philip Green won £2 million playing roulette at the club, and in 2006 as he celebrated with friends at Les Ambassadeurs after receiving his knighthood, Green initially lost £700,000 at blackjack before recovering the sum through roulette.[17][16] A 2007 article in The Evening Standard described Les Ambassadeurs as attracting a predominantly Middle Eastern clientele of "Kuwaitis, Saudis, and Iranian Jews" and that a 2005 profit warning from the club was partially caused by a decline in gambling revenues during Ramadan.[16]

The Building formally had a garden that extended into what is now Park Lane, the garden was reduced in size when Park Lane was widened in the 1960s. A ground floor extension was later built and this stood until replaced with a terrace and green roof in 2014.

The club was portrayed in the inaugural James Bond film Dr. No (1962).[23] A set built at Pinewood Studios and designed by Ken Adam was based on Les Ambassadeurs. Bond, portrayed by Sean Connery, and playing chemin de fer, introduces himself for the first time in the film franchise.[24] Two scenes in The Beatles' 1964 film A Hard Day's Night were filmed at Les Ambassadeurs. The Beatles are shown dancing to "I Wanna Be Your Man" and "Don't Bother Me" in the Garrison Room and find Wilfrid Brambell at the Le Cercle gaming tables. The scenes were shot in March and April 1964.[3][25]

References
  1. Historic England, "No. 5, Hamilton Place (1066716)", National Heritage List for England, retrieved 6 November 2020
  2. Nikolaus Pevsner; Bridget Cherry (1973). London: The cities of London and Westminster. Penguin. p. 629. ISBN 978-0-14-071012-0.
  3. Mark Daly (16 October 2018). London Uncovered (New Edition): More than Sixty Unusual Places to Explore. White Lion Publishing. pp. 128–. ISBN 978-0-7112-3998-2.
  4. The Player (30 April 2010). The Player Bookazine Issue 14. The Player. pp. 6–. GGKEY:HSLETEWS5G7.
  5. Glatzer, Jason (15 December 2015). "Landing International Purchases Les Ambassadeurs for £137 Million". PokerNews. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  6. "John Mills, Who Ran London Clubs, Is Dead". The New York Times. 19 January 1982. Retrieved 3 May 2020.
  7. Douglas Thompson (16 December 2013). Stephen Ward: Scapegoat – They All Loved Him... But When It Went Wrong They Killed Him. John Blake. pp. 25–. ISBN 978-1-78219-931-1.
  8. Sarah Bradford (28 February 2002). Elizabeth: A Biography of Her Majesty the Queen. Penguin Books Limited. pp. 406–. ISBN 978-0-14-100655-0.
  9. Christopher Lee (1999). Tall, Dark, and Gruesome. Midnight Marquee Press. p. 112. ISBN 978-1-887664-25-7.
  10. John Charles Bennett (29 April 2014). Hitchcock's Partner in Suspense: The Life of Screenwriter Charles Bennett. University Press of Kentucky. pp. 180–. ISBN 978-0-8131-4479-5.
  11. Antony Robin Jeremy Kushner; Tony Kushner (1989). The Persistence of Prejudice: Antisemitism in British Society During the Second World War. Manchester University Press. p. 96. ISBN 978-0-7190-2896-0.
  12. Paul Balmer (7 June 2010). Stephane Grappelli: A Life in Jazz. Bobcat Books. pp. 182–. ISBN 978-0-85712-370-1.
  13. "Lawful Chemin-de-Fer". The Times. No. 55888. 19 December 1963. p. 8. Retrieved 7 November 2020 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  14. Douglas Thompson (28 June 2012). The Hustlers: Gambling, Greed and the Perfect Con. Pan Macmillan. pp. 157–. ISBN 978-0-330-53878-7.
  15. "Casino fails in appeal to retain licence". The Times. No. 60435. 18 October 1978. p. 2. Retrieved 9 November 2020 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  16. Hollingsworth, Mark (2007). "Another Spin of the Wheel". Evening Standard magazine.
  17. Kollewe, Julia (12 October 2012). "Les Ambassadeurs up for sale". The Guardian. Retrieved 13 August 2016.
  18. Morrison, K. "Plans to boost Les Ambassadeurs Club's Asian VIP focus by Landing Int". World Casino Directory.
  19. Les Ambassadeurs:Our History
  20. Betty Evelyn Box (2000). Lifting the Lid: The Autobiography of Film Producer, Betty Box, OBE. Book Guild. p. 267. ISBN 978-1-85776-489-5.
  21. Lyell, Nicholas (2011) [2004]. "Havers, (Robert) Michael Oldfield, Baron Havers". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/51093. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  22. Kay, Oliver (5 November 2005). "Ferguson has hopes of sunshine after wane". The Times. No. 68537. p. 108. Retrieved 9 November 2020 – via The Times Digital Archive.
  23. "19 top secret Bond locations around Britain". The Daily Telegraph. 28 October 2015. Retrieved 11 November 2020.
  24. Matthew Field; Ajay Chowdhury (12 October 2015). Some Kind of Hero: The Remarkable Story of the James Bond Films. History Press. pp. 60–. ISBN 978-0-7509-6650-4.
  25. Piet Schreuders; Mark Lewisohn; Adam Smith (25 March 2008). Beatles London: The Ultimate Guide to Over 400 Beatles Sites in and Around London. Pavilion Books. pp. 192–. ISBN 978-1-906032-26-5.

51°30′16″N 00°09′02″W

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