The Story of “The Toucan”

Prior to being the pub we all know and love as The Toucan, 19 Carlisle Street has been a legendary Soho spot for decades. Back in the 60’s, the premises was a Greek restaurant called La Roca, known in the area by day for its immaculate greek cuisine. By night, the restaurant was famous for it’s evenings of music in the basement. Three nights a week in 1966, the basement bar hosted a disco called Knuckles Bar run by Viv Prince (who was also the drummer of The Pretty Things). As the hang out spot grew in popularity among the average London musician, Knuckles Bar became the underground go-to place for anyone trying to break into the entertainment business. In October of 1966, manager Chas Chandler (the drummer of The Animals) introduced a fresh faced Jimi Hendrix to the tiny Soho bar. That evening, Jimi jammed with the trio that was performing called Deep Feeling featuring Jim Capaldi & Dave Mason — a trio who went on to form the band Traffic.

27 years later in December of 1993, Colin Taylor, who now owns the famous Soho Guinness bar, first began working at 19 Carlisle Street. At this date the premises was occupied by a take away sandwich bar and café, called As You Like It. The original owner of the space had continued operating the bar in the basement, however changed the iconic name from Knuckles Bar to Buzz’s Bar. Buzz was bothered by the lack of good Guinness in central London in the 90s, and therefore set up a haven for Guinness enthusiasts to get a proper pint of the black stuff in Soho.

As it turned out, Buzz’s Bar quickly found itself in trouble, so Colin agreed to become a partner of the business to try and save it from closure. To clear Buzz’s debts, Colin applied to take over the licence for the basement bar whilst keeping the sandwich bar and café open on the ground floor. The license was transferred to Colin’s name in June 1994, and The Toucan was born.

From then on the popularity of the basement bar grew faster than anyone could have imagined. In order to accommodate the growing number of customers, Colin and his wife Carol applied for the full licence for both the basement bar and ground floor sandwich shop in 1997. The pair quickly got to work renovating the sandwich shop to mirror the aesthetic of the basement bar; however, they paid homage to As You Like It by incorporating the original marble sandwich bar counter that’s still in the premises today.

Where 2021 is concerned, The Toucan is still a Soho Square staple. The tiny pub continues its traditions of celebrating all things Guinness, adorned with the same memorabilia from years gone by. The painted toucans flying around the walls and original signage is what makes this pub such a pilgrimage site for so many Guinness lovers. A musician will still be able to feel the history when in The Toucan, with our legendary basement bar being no stranger to impromptu Irish music being played by customers — even a quick rendition of ‘The Wild Rover’ on a Friday night is still a regular occurrence! From the hordes of punters having a pint out on the street on a warm London evening, to our famous St Patrick's Day celebrations, The Toucan is still a very special place indeed.