After much messaging back and forth, Gretchen Schiff, Sofia Medina’s former flatmate, eventually agrees to speak to Robin, suggesting the Montagu Pyke as a meeting place.
The Montagu Pyke is a Wetherspoon’s pub on Charing Cross Road, only a couple of minutes’ walk from Denmark Street.
‘It had once been a famous music venue, and was large enough to fit a few hundred people, with a very high, arched ceiling and maroon walls, on which hung large posters of acts that had once appeared here.’ (Chapter 45)
The building was the last home of the famous Marquee Club, which occupied the premises from 1988 until closing in 1996. Opening in 1911, the building was originally Pyke’s Cambridge Circus Cinematograph Theatre and was the sixteenth and last cinema opened by Montagu Pyke. Pyke was known as ‘the Cinema King’ for establishing a chain of London cinemas in the early 1900s.
The book mentions posters of Jimi Hendrix and The Who, who both played the Marquee when it was based in other venues. Robin also notices a poster of ‘the Deadbeats, Strike’s father’s band, with the long-haired Jonny Rokeby to the fore in his bell-bottom jeans and a leather jacket worn open over a bare chest.’
Robin buys herself a coffee. As it is with a Wetherspoons pub, she’ll have filled up her mug from one of the coffee machines next to the bar.
She chooses a table where she has a clear view of the entrance, and waits for Gretchen.
Gretchen arrives with a young man. They buy themselves a beer each and join Robin’s table. Gretchen introduces the young man as her boyfriend, Max. Robin interviews them about Sofia, and who she may have met through her OnlyFans account. They are reluctant to talk, but Robin eventually persuades them to reveal what they know.
The Montagu Pyke’s website is here:
More about ‘the Cinema King’ Montagu Pyke here:
You can find the Montagu Pyke here: