Curator Vicky Garrington has recently been researching a membership card for the Kosmo Club. Known in the 1920s and 1930s for its all-night dances and great live band, the nightclub became tangled in a scandal in 1933 that was uncovered by famous Edinburgh detective Willie Merrilees.
Founded in 1923 as the Bohemian, the Kosmo Club was based on Swinton Row, near today’s bus station behind the St James centre. The membership card dates from 1931, three years after the club was renamed the Kosmo Club.
We can see from details on the card that dancing went on until 4 am, but Merrilees and his associates discovered that many of the ‘dance partners’ booked for late-night dances were being coerced into prostitution. Legend has it that Merrilees began hanging around outside the club, disguised as a street walker, and was astonished by the well-known names coming through the doors. In 1933 he led a raid on the club and the owners were sent to trial for running a prostitution business. The club closed its doors, but its legend lived on.
As well as the membership card, Museums & Galleries Edinburgh hold the suit and drum kit of Jock Connell, who played in the Kosmo Club house band from the 1920s onwards. Many employees would have been unaware of the illegal activities going on at the club, or may have been powerless to stop them. They focused instead on bringing music and good times to one of Edinburgh’s best-known hot spots.
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