Douglas House, London

The Douglas House, London was a US servicemen's club operated by the United States Air Force for twenty-five years at two different locations in London's West End. The club's purpose was to provide "home-style service" for the thousands of American airmen based in the United Kingdom and US servicemen of all branches who might be passing through. The first location opened after the Second World War in Mayfair. In 1959 the Douglas House was relocated to Lancaster Gate, near Hyde Park. In the early 1960s, its nightclub served as a springboard for the budding career of a nascent London band called the Detours, that later went on to greater fame as The Who. When the club closed in 1970, the property was sold to a private firm. thumbLocationThe original Douglas House, which opened either during or after the Second World War, occupied the former Guards Club building at 41–43 Brook Street in Mayfair. The second Douglas House was located at 66 Lancaster Gate, W2, in the Bayswater /Hyde Park district of London, one block north of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and the actual Lancaster Gate on Bayswater Road. AmenitiesThe facilities of the first Douglas House included volleyball, handball, and badminton courts and evening cabarets and dances. The second Douglas House, on Lancaster Gate, had 110 low-cost hotel rooms for families as well as singles, a restaurant, nightclub, soda bar, four-chair barber shop, TV lounge, bureau de change, and a newsstand that sold American periodicals. One former serviceman remembered that the restaurant, which "specialized in steaks, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken wings, ham, roasts, and baked and fried chicken, " was "the best place for American food. "

The Douglas House, London was a US servicemen's club operated by the United States Air Force for twenty-five years at two different locations in London's West End. The club's purpose was to provide "home-style service" for the thousands of American airmen based in the United Kingdom and US servicemen of all branches who might be passing through. The first location opened after the Second World War in Mayfair. In 1959 the Douglas House was relocated to Lancaster Gate, near Hyde Park. In the early 1960s, its nightclub served as a springboard for the budding career of a nascent London band called the Detours, that later went on to greater fame as The Who. When the club closed in 1970, the property was sold to a private firm. thumbLocationThe original Douglas House, which opened either during or after the Second World War, occupied the former Guards Club building at 41–43 Brook Street in Mayfair. The second Douglas House was located at 66 Lancaster Gate, W2, in the Bayswater /Hyde Park district of London, one block north of Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens and the actual Lancaster Gate on Bayswater Road. AmenitiesThe facilities of the first Douglas House included volleyball, handball, and badminton courts and evening cabarets and dances. The second Douglas House, on Lancaster Gate, had 110 low-cost hotel rooms for families as well as singles, a restaurant, nightclub, soda bar, four-chair barber shop, TV lounge, bureau de change, and a newsstand that sold American periodicals. One former serviceman remembered that the restaurant, which "specialized in steaks, spaghetti and meatballs, chicken wings, ham, roasts, and baked and fried chicken, " was "the best place for American food. "