The Ivy

The Ivy is a restaurant which is popular with celebrities, people from the arts and media and theatregoers. It is situated in West Street, near Cambridge Circus in London and opposite the Ambassadors and St Martin's theatres.

History

The original restaurant was opened by Abel Giandellini in 1917 as an unlicensed Italian cafe in a building on the same site. Legend has it that the name itself originated from a chance remark by the actress Alice Delysia, who overheard Giandellini apologise to a customer for the inconvenience caused by building works. When he said that it was because of his intention to create a restaurant of the highest class, she interjected "Don't worry – we will always come and see you. 'We will cling together like the ivy'", a line from a then-popular song. The restaurant expanded into the current premises in 1929 run by Giandellini, with his longstanding Maitre d' Mario Gallati as host .

In part due to its proximity to the West End theatres, exclusivity and late closing time (it is still open until close to midnight), the restaurant quickly became a theatrical institution, with Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, Marlene Dietrich, John Gielgud, Lilian Braithwaite, Terence Rattigan, Binkie Beaumont and Noël Coward being habitués, having their regular 2-seater tables along the walls. According to the actor Donald Sinden in his Sky Arts television documentary series Great West End Theatres, The Ivy became so famous as a theatrical-celebrities haunt that in the 1943 revue Sweet and Low which ran for almost six years at the neighbouring Ambassadors Theatre, there was a satirical sketch included, updated regularly, entitled Poison Ivy, where the show's star Hermione Gingold "would exchange wicked and salacious celebrity gossip".

The Ivy (Los Angeles)

The Ivy is a restaurant on Robertson Boulevard in Los Angeles known for celebrity sightings and papparazzi. It serves nouvelle American cuisine "in a prettily decorated series of country-cottage rooms, with a flowery outdoor terrace" close to International Creative Management whose employees and clients can often be found eating at the celebrated restaurant.

Celeb hotspot

The area around The Ivy on Robertson Boulevard is crowded with boutiques, paparazzi shooting for Us Weekly, In Touch or Life & Style, and tourists with "the largest herd of bulb flashers... found directly across the street from The Ivy, where stars and stargazers alike dine". An MSNBC article called The Ivy "a celebrity beehive that sees a constant stream of Hummers, Mercedes and Jaguars pull up and discharge folks who pay through the nose to be seen eating in public".

Notable patrons

English actor Patrick Stewart said he likes to go to The Ivy Restaurant because it is open late and "you can sit over a last glass of wine without having people piling chairs on the tables round you" in a 1994 interview. Lil' Kim and her "raucous entourage", "kept the Sidecars flowing till closing at the tony Robertson Boulevard restaurant" while she was in Los Angeles working on her third solo album, according to an 2002 LA Times story.Paris Hilton's brother Barron Hilton II held a birthday "bash" at The Ivy in 2004.

Steeleye Span

Steeleye Span are an English folk-rock band formed in 1969. Still active today, along with Fairport Convention, they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat". They had three Top 40 albums; they achieved a certified gold record with sales of "All Around My Hat".

Throughout their history, Steeleye Span have seen many personnel changes but have maintained a strong continuity of tradition. Their typical album is a collection of mostly traditional songs with one or two instrumental tracks of jigs and/or reels added; the traditional songs often include some of the Child ballads. In their later albums there has been an increased tendency to include music written by the band members, but they have never got completely away from traditional music, which draws upon pan-British traditions.

History

The early years

Steeleye Span began in late 1969, when London-born bass player Ashley Hutchings departed Fairport Convention, the band he had co-founded in 1967. Fairport had been involved in a road accident in 1969 in which the drummer, Martin Lamble, was killed and other band members injured. They convalesced in a rented house near Winchester in Hampshire and worked on the album Liege & Lief. Despite the success of the album, Ashley Hutchings and the band's vocalist Sandy Denny left Fairport Convention.