The Chronicle of Swinging London in the Sixties: A Remarkable Collection of Autographs, Defining an Era

A unique visitors book kept by a prominent boutique, filled with the iconic names of the era, from Mick Jagger to Queen Elizabeth II to Donovan to Twiggy

 

With thousands of signatures, the most complete such collection we have seen

Swinging London: Its very name conjures up images of style, culture, excitement and romance. Presided over by a young Queen Elizabeth, London transformed itself from a bleak, conservative, colorless city, only just beginning to forget the troubles of the Second World War, into the focus of all the world’s attention, bursting into bloom with color, freedom, optimism and promise. It represented a fundamental and explosive change in attitude, values, and art. And all classes took part, from the Queen’s own sister, Margaret, to a hairdresser’s daughter, Cilla Black. London was the center of all the action; the city where everything was happening and where anything was possible.

London captured the imagination of the world’s media, and soon had the full attention of youth everywhere. And when Time Magazine in its April 15, 1966 issue dubbed London: the Swinging City, it cemented the association between London and all things hip and fashionable that had been growing in the popular imagination throughout the decade. London seemed like the capital of the world and all eyes were on it.

The importance of London in the making of the Sixties cannot be exaggerated. There, in that one place, at that one time, was the center so many revolutions. There was the fashion revolution, with clothes becoming more playful, colorful, and youthful. This was exemplified by the shops on Carnegie Street and in Chelsea, and the eclectic I Was Lord Kitchener’s Valet on Piccadilly. The sartorial splendor of these fashions was exhibited by models like Twiggy and rock stars like Mick Jagger. There was the art and design revolution, which filled London with galleries and studios. There was the music revolution, exemplified by the Beatles and Rolling Stones. In the U.S., all talk was of the British invasion. It’s hard to overestimate the impact British music had on the lifestyles and aspirations of the youth of America. Looking back, we can almost close our eyes and see Donovan singing Catch the Wind for Bob Dylan or 73 million Americans watching The Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show. And then of course there was the recreational drug revolution, with these drugs being normative by the end of the Sixties; and the sexual revolution and the shattering of gender roles.

Americans flocked to London to participate in it all. You’d find Bob Dylan and Judy Garland there, the Byrds and Beach Boys were there, and so many others. And not everyone was famous. There was the boy at the New Jersey shore looking out over the ocean and thinking London was just on the other side, and he would go there (and did). And Americans weren’t the only ones. People from all over the world came to London.

Many of London’s most fashionable boutiques of the late 1960’s and early 70’s were on Fulham Road, which runs through Chelsea, and one of these was owned by Neil Zarach. Zarach partnered with the designer David Hicks (who also happened to be Lord Mountbatten’s son in law) in this iconic enterprise. In the ’70s Hicks left the business and Zarach took over full ownership. Zarach’s client list included fashionable London society, as well as many of the world’s rulers, mega movie stars, rock stars, tycoons, and others of note in Swinging London. The shop was famous for its parties, like the “Red Opening” on November 7, 1968.

The shop kept a guestbook, which in time became two volumes (one labeled “Visitors), altogether 225 pages, with over 1,000 signatures. The first volume covers 1967-1971, the second volume 1971-1974, with additional entries for an event on June 7, 1984. The six pages for the “Red Opening” are memorialized here with the names in red pen. These books are a virtual compendium of the people who made Swinging London. Not only the famous names, though there are plenty of them, but also the others in every walk of life. We have never seen a broader and more diverse collection of signatures that reveals all the facets of Swinging London reach the market, and we obtained this one in England.

The Visitors Books: The press was at the boutique in force. Signing the guestbook were journalists representing well over a score of leading newspapers, magazines, and television outlets. These included Vogue, which sent Julian West its senior fashion editor, Harpers Bazaar, The Times, Architecture Magazine, Cosmopolitan, House and Garden Magazine (which sent its editor Olive Sullivan), the BBC, New York Journal of Commence, Art Forum, and Italian Television.

As for visitors, we lead off with royalty. The book is presided over by signatures of Queen Elizabeth II; her sister Princess Margaret (signing as Margaret Rose), along with her husband Lord Snowden; their cousin Alexandra; Umberto, the last king of Italy; Ali Mirza, Iranian prince; and Elizabeth Oxenberg, princess of Yugoslavia. This is the only time we have seen something signed by both Elizabeth and Margaret, making this exceptional. Then there is Lord Louis Mountbatten, great-grandson of Queen Victoria. He was named Chief of Combined Operations headquarters in World War II, and the last Viceroy of India. Princess Lee Radziwill, a sister of Jacqueline Kennedy, also signed, as has the Shi’a leader the Aga Khan.

From the world of entertainment, actors include such giants as Julie Andrews, Elizabeth Taylor, Luise Rainer, Christopher Plummer, Joan Collins, Angela Lansbury, Leslie Caron, Maggie Smith, Lauren Bacall, and Linden Travers (actress for Alfred Hitchcock). Also Swinging London icons Peter Sellers, Michael Caine, and Julie Christie, among many others. Then were were innumerable people associated with theater and film, like Michael Briggs, location manager for the Godfather; Gerald Vaughan-Hughes, writer of plays and TV series; Jack Hildyard, Oscar winning cinematographer; Maurice Binder, film designer who did the James Bond movies; Dennis Stock, artist and photographer who shot several documentaries, including one on the Hippies in San Francisco; George Axelrod, screenwriter, producer, director, and playwright; Troy Kennedy Martin, film and television screenwriter; Peter Hall, theater, opera and film director; Henry Kaplan, film director; Richard H. Coll, cinematographer and composer; noted film director Stanley Donan; and George Watters, Oscar winner for sound editing.

What would Swinging London be without music? The guestbook contains Mick Jagger of the Rolling Stones, those name is synonymous with sex appeal and swagger; Dusty Springfield, singer and Jagger’s then-girlfriend; Donovan, whose Catch the Wind catapulted him into fame and friendship with the Beatles; Cilla Black, the top-selling female rock artist in England. She was discovered by the Beatles, as Cilla’s mother Priscilla White, was best friends with Ringo’s mom. Even Suzy Creamcheese is here; she accompanied Frank Zappa. There is Rory McEwen, presenter of the ground-breaking folk and blues TV program, Hullaballoo, and was a leading light in the great wave of cultural change sweeping through 1960’s London. A version of Hullaballoo appeared in the U.S. Also Shel Talmy, record producer, songwriter and arranger, who worked with the Who and Kinks; and Martin Turner, musician and founder of the group Wishbone Ash.

There are many hundred names from the world of fashion and design. Among these are David Hicks, model Twiggy (and her manager Justin de Villeneuve), who ruled Carnaby St.; Marguerite Littman, model for Andy Warhol; and Peter Marlowe, legendary rep for hundreds of London’s greatest models. Mary Quant’s husband Alexander Plunket Greene was there, and undoubtedly reported what he found to her. Also, Cecile Moon of Christian Dior; Dudley Poplak, interior designer who worked with Princess Diana in the ‘80s; Paul Hould and Allen Vetere of trendsetting Connaissance Fabrics in New York; Agnes Comar, boutique owner in Paris; J. Reed Crawford, high-fashion milliner/designer; Patricia McRoberts, model for Yves St Laurent; Stanley Falconer of legendary design firm Colefax & Fowler; fashion designers Rupert Lycett Green and Ossie Clark; Christopher Vane Percy, designer, president of the International Interior Design Association; Wilmer Weiss, fashion executive; renowned interior designers John Stefanidis, David Resnick, George Freeman, Mark Hampton, Keith Irvine, Tessa Kennedy and Budd Sugarman; Ken Lane, designer, luxury jeweler; Zandra Rose, fashion designer; Karl Springer, furniture designer; Beryl Hartland, clothing designer; and Carla Venosta, industrial designer.

Among the artists are Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi, known for his sculpture and graphic works. Widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art; Robert “Groovy Bob” Fraser, art dealer to the Beatles; Nicholas Egon (leading portrait artist); AGM (Tony) Krikhaar, plus Duncan Grant, Jeff Hoare, Yves Corbassiere, Michael Michaeledes, Paul Wyeth, Chiquita Astor, Michael Upton, and Noel Dyrenforth, artist and textile designer. Art dealer Roy Miles and illustrator Ralph Steadman are also included.

Photographers include Cecil Beaton, photographer to the Queen, fashion, portrait and war photographer; Bruce Laird, photographer and friend of Jimi Hendrix; Marc Hispard, fashion photographer in Paris; Zoe Dominic, dance and theatre photographer; plus Peter Carapetian, Peter Rand – photographer, and Derek Cattani.

Authors include Robert Lacey, Martin Amis, Alan Burgess, Robert Carrier (chef and cookery writer), Jeffrey Finestone and Philip Mason (who wrote on India). Noted architects include Cedric Price and Patrick Garnett.

From the world of business and philanthropy we find David Rockefeller, William O. Baker (Bell Labs president), Nicola and Paolo Bulgari of the Bulgari fortune, Paul Getty, Jr., Raphael Etkes (head of Embassy Pictures), and philanthropist and banker Dante Leonetti.

Plus there were notable people who fit into no category. Like Victoria Ormsby-Gore, part of the fashion and arts counter-culture in London whose father was ambassador to the U.S., socialite Penelope Sitwell, Suna Portman (whose parties were legendary), Sheila Scott (aviator, the first person to fly over the North Pole in a small aircraft),Veronique Peck (arts patron, philanthropist, and wife of Gregory Peck), Kenneth Newton (celebrity doctor), MP Veronica Wadley, Lord Weymouth, and the notorious libertine Lord Egremont.

These names are the smallest fraction of the names present, and a fuller list is available. Together they constitute a truly important collection of Swinging London signatures, and constitute a window on the era of the Sixties.

A fuller list:

J. Reed Crawford – high-fashion milliner/designer in Swinging London
Olive Sullivan – interior designer, editor of House and Garden
Elizabeth Wakefield – owner of Lough Cutra Castle, redesigning it
William Spowers – director of books and manuscripts for Christie’s
Fritz Suckle – of the Curtis & Davis architectural and design firm
Patricia Keerian – reporting on this for the Daily Mail
William O. Baker, Bell Labs president
Dudley Poplak, interior designer, who worked with Princess Diana in the ‘80s
Rory McEwen – Rory McEwen was a painter, musician, sculptor and television presenter. By his mid-twenties he was presenting the ground-breaking folk and blues TV programme, Hullaballoo, and was a leading light in the great wave of cultural change sweeping through 1960’s London, counting amongst his friends many of the luminaries of the art, music and performance worlds.
Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi – a Scottish artist, known for his sculpture and graphic works. Widely considered to be one of the pioneers of pop art.
Hilary Gelson – reporter for The Times, coined the phrase Art Deco.
Peter Carapetian – artist
AGM (Tony) Krikhaar – artist
Robert Gurney – Monument National Buildings Trust
John Hamill – film actor
Maxwell Joseph – founder of Grand Metropolitan plc, a large British hotel group.
Gerald Vaughan-Hughes – writer of plays and TV series
David Hicks – interior decorator and designer
Julie Christie – actress
Rodney Bewes – actor
Dennis Stock – photographer
Sally Thompson – journalist
Patricia McRoberts – model
Jeff Hoare – artist
Wilmer Weiss – fashion executive
Anthony Sully – interior designer
Christopher and Susan Brownson – founders of Blue Bell Motor Co.
Suzy Creamcheese
Julian West – senior fashion editor of Vogue
Anne Russell – Actress
Peter Twining – antiques dealer in Chelsea
Jack Hildyard – Oscar winning Cinematographer
Penelope Sitwell – socialite
Ken Lane – designer, luxury jeweler
Jeanette de Rothschild – who went missing and was the subject of a famous manhunt
John Stefanidis – interior designer and founder of a London-based interior design firm
Carla Venosta – designer
Afdera Fonda – wife of Henry Fonda
Paul Hamm – author
Christopher Vane Percy – designer
Elizabeth Lambert – Vogue Magazine writer
Joie Gould – filmmaker
Yves Corbassiere – French painter
Timi Yuro – singer
Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi – sculptor and graphic artist
Rodolfo Barone – actor
Stanley Falconer – of legendary design form Colefax & Fowler
G.W. Wallace – author
Richard H. Coll – cinematographer and composer
David Resnick – interior designer
Peter Marlowe – legendary rep for hundreds of London’s greatest models
Shel Talmy – record producer, songwriter and arranger, worked with the Who and Kinks
Patrick Garnett – architect
Claude De Leusse – author
Rory McEwen – artist and musician
Marc Hispard – fashion photographer in Paris
Aubrey West – author
Suna Portman – socialite whose parties were famous
Cecil Beaton – fashion, portrait and war photographer, diarist, painter, and interior designer, as well as an Oscar–winning stage and costume designer for films and the theatre.
David Somerset – Duke of Beaufort
Peter Rand – photographer
Cedric Price – noted architect
Victoria Ormsby-Gore – part of the fashion and arts counter-culture in London
Troy Kennedy Martin – film and television screenwriter
Ian Dallas – actor, writer, religious figure
Vera Sherman – artist, author
Maurice Binder -visual designer, creator of the famed opening title sequences of the James Bond movies
Peter Hall – theatre, opera and film director
George Freeman – noted interior designer
Zoe Dominic – dance and theatre photographer
Alain de Cadenet – television presenter and former racing driver
Don Bessant – master printer in lithography, fiancee of Julie Christie
Noel Dyrenforth – artist, textile designer
Patricia Hicks – actress
Mick Jagger
Alexander Plunket Greene – Mary Quant’s husband
Mark Hampton – interior designer
Richard Glyn – MP
Derek Parker – Author, broadcaster
Susan Benjamin – designer of enamel boxes
Paul Hould and Allen Vetere of Connaissance Fabrics in NY
Terry Milington – artist
Frank Gatliff – actor
John Siddeley, noted interior decorator and Baron Kenilworth
Sheila Scott – aviator
Marguerite Littman – model for Andy Warhol
Tessa Kennedy – interior designer
Raphael Etkes – head of Embassy Pictures
Rupert Lycett Green – fashion designer
Ossie Clark – fashion designer
Veronica Hindley – fashion editor at Vogue
John Galliher – socialite, decorator
Chryss Goulandris -horse breeder, one of richest women in Ireland
Nicola Bulgari – Italian billionaire businessman
Paolo Bulgari – Italian billionaire businessman
Lord Egremont – notorious libertine
Alan Burgess – author
Mountbatten of Burma – military leader
Peter Saunders – British sociologist
Elizabeth Taylor
Elizabeth Oxenberg, princess of Yugoslavia
Twiggy
Queen Elizabeth II
Henry Kaplan – film director
Margaret Rose – princess and sister of Queen Elizabeth
John Sandoe – bookshop owner
Lord Snowden – Anthony Armstrong Jones
Justin de Villeneuve – Twiggy’s manager
Twiggy
Peter Hall – director
Michael Michaeledes – artist
Veronique Peck – arts patron, philanthropist, and journalist
Chiquita Astor – artist
Michael Upton – artist
Keith Irvine – interior designer
Budd Sugarman – interior designer
Gareth Wigan – producer, studio exec, worked on Star Wars
Piero de Monza – boutique owner
Dante Leonetti – philanthropist, banker
Peter Davies – actor
Stanley Donan – film director
Leslie Caron – actress
George Watters – producer, director
Dusty Springfield – singer
Norma Tanega – singer
Maggie Smith – actress
Harold Brooks-Baker – publisher
Paul Getty, Jr. – philanthropist and book collector
Agnes Comar – boutique owner in Paris
Linden Travers – actress
George Axelrod – screenwriter, producer, director, playwright
Donovan – singer
Derek Cattani – photographer
Anne Dunbar Graham – author
Cecil Beaton – photographer to the Queen
Robert “Groovy Bob” Fraser – art dealer to the Beatles
Paul Wyeth – artist
Luise Rainer – actress
John Siddeley – interior designer
Michael Briggs – location manager for the Godfather
Brian Henderson – producer and actor
Roy Miles – art dealer
Ingrid Roscoe – writer on English art
Mrs. Albert Finney – wife of actor
Afdera Fonda – baroness and wife of Henry Fonda
David Hicks – interior designer
Michael Caine – actor
Christopher Plummer – actor
Beryl Hartland – clothing designer
Angus Ogilvy – businessman, married the Queen’s cousin Alexandra
Alexandra – the Queen’s cousin
Moira Lister – actress
Ali Mirza – Iranian prince
Lee Radziwill – sister of Jackie Kennedy
Joan Collins – actress
Aga Khan – Imām of the Nizari Ismāʿīli Shias
Angela Lansbury – actress
Cilla Black – singer
Jeffrey Finestone – author, historian
Nicholas Egon – leading portrait artist
Lauren Bacall – actress
Umberto – last king of Italy
Anna Massey – actress
Karl Springer – furniture designer
Jonathan Routh – TV star
Olga Deterding – socialite
Elizabeth Harris – socialite
Sue Glover – singer
Donna Brownjohn – wife of graphic designer Robert, friend of Andy Warhol
Stephen Lewis – actor
Tamasin Day Lewis – TV personality
Dante Leonetti – banker and philanthropist
Kenneth Dowd – actor
Ralph Steadman – illustrator
Philip Mason – author
Janet Street-Porter – Journalist, TV producer
Lord Weymouth
H.G. Beck – author
Rohan McCullough – actress
Kenneth Newton – celebrity doctor
Kaye Webb – journalist, publisher
David Rockefeller
Veronica Wadley – MP
Robert Carrier – chef and cookery writer
Maurice Binder – film designer who did the James Bond movies
Elizabeth Spender – actress
Rupert Chetwynd – soldier, adventurer
Martin Amis – novelist
Zandra Rose – fashion designer
Bruce Laird – photographer, friend of Jimi Hendrix
Robert Lacey – author
Mary Berry Barnes – artist
Ken Hollock – musician
Martin Turner – musician
Michael Nicholson – journalist
Fred Kaye – actor
Cecile Moon – of Christian Dior
Duncan Grant – painter
Juliet Robyns – actress
Carol Speed – actress
Valerie Murray – actress
Julie Andrews – actress
Peter Sellers – actor
Ann Barr – editor of Queen

Media list:
Vogue
Harpers Bazaar
The Times
Architecture Magazine
Cosmopolitan
House and Garden Magazine
The BBC
New York Journal of Commence
Art Forum
Italian Television
London Post 14
Daily Express
Daily Telegraph
Family Circle
Daily Mail
Evening News
Observer
Daily Sketch
Architects Journal
Architectural Review
Record Mirror
Nova Magazine
Daily Mirror
Evening Standard