JIMI Hendrix jammed on stage there, Stevie Wonder played to packed crowds there, Tom Jones drank there and Eric Clapton had his guitar stolen there. 

The unique musical heritage of a tiny 1960s nightclub in West Hampstead could be lost, campaigners say, after the council approved plans to convert it into flats. 

A last-minute campaign has been launched to restore the legendary Klooks Kleek venue above The Railway pub in West End Lane.

Staff and punters gathered outside the venue on Monday to rally against the move to turn the three floors above the pub into office space and six flats.

Objectors to the change outside the pub in West End Lane on Monday afternoon

Railway bartenders and sisters, Francesca and Mackenzie Dumas, who also live above the pub and have collected more than 60 signatures, have called for the pub to become community-owned and for the venue to be re-opened upstairs. 

Klooks Kleek founder Dick Jordan, 75, told the New Journal it was a “pity” but the planning battle was “nostalgia over high finance, and high finance will win every time”. He warned: “If you want to fight for it, fight for it, but you’ll never win.” 

As well as being the last traditional sports pub in the area, The Railway was the host of the celebrated nightclub from 1961-70, where countless legends – including Led Zeppelin, Ronnie Scott, Rod Stewart, John Lee Hooker, Zoot Money, Jethro Tull and Fleetwood Mac – rocked the nights away on a temporary stage made of beer crates. 

Down the road from Decca Studios, where The Beatles infamously failed their recording contract audition, the 20ft-long space on the first floor, which was used for weddings and parties when it wasn’t playing host to some of the biggest names in rhythm and blues, was described as a “Victorian drawing room” with a capacity of 250.

Putting West Hampstead on the musical map: the Dave Morse Band get ready to play the Klooks Kleek club.
Pic: Dick Jordan, from 'The Decca Studios and Klooks Kleek' by Dick Wiendling and Marianne Colloms 

Yet it drew crowds from far and wide every week with a reputation for having its finger on the pulse of up-and-coming talent.

Cream recorded an “unofficial” live album there in 1966, the Stones dropped by for drinks and Jimi Hendrix appeared one night in a poncho in 1967 and borrowed Mick Taylor’s guitar to jam on stage with the John Mayall Band – accidentally smashing Taylor’s instrument on a chandelier and catching his hair on the lights. 

Klooks Kleek had been run as a part-time business by Mr Jordan, 75, a jazz musician who worked in film advertising, and his childhood friend Geoff Williams, 75, a civil servant. It was re-opened in another form, in the basement, as The Moonlight Club, where bands like Joy Division, The Specials and U2, found fame in the 1970s and 80s. 

Camden Council approved plans to convert the first floor into office space and six flats on the second and third floors.

The pub facade will remain unchanged but it would need to close for 18 weeks while the work is carried out. 

A spokeswoman from owners Spirit Pub Company said: “We can confirm that a planning application has been submitted regarding the development of the upper floors of The Railway pub into private residences and offices.”

Francesca Dumas, who also studies theatre at Central, said: “We need to save this place, but I worry we are too late because no one even knew the application had gone in. West Hampstead is becoming so full of estate agents, they are kicking all the traditional and artistic people out of the area. 

“I would gladly risk my job if it is to save this building. It has such an amazing history.”

Campaigner Mackenzie Dumas at the pub

Mr Jordan added: “It was a special time. No one was star struck, they might say ‘so and so was in’ but it was a different time, the air was full of stars."