Boogie in The Bunker: A Blues Jam with Dino Baptiste

One Night Only – Wednesday
The Bunker at Temple of Art and Music, Elephant and Castle

If you want to experience London’s music scene in 2026 — but feel like you’ve stepped into 1966 — this is your night.

Five minutes’ walk from Dana Gillespie’s flat in Thurloe Square stood 3 Cromwell Road — home to the legendary Cromwellian Club.

Before it became a rock ’n’ roll landmark, the building had a shadowy past. Legend says it began life as an underground casino linked to John Aspinall’s gambling circle. By the early 60s it had transformed into something far more explosive.

The Cromwellian became the place where musicians, managers, aristocrats and misfits collided after midnight.

Down in the cellar — on a tiny dancefloor — history happened.

Jimi Hendrix played his first London jam there, sitting in with Brian Auger. Eric Burdon dropped by. Georgie Fame. Chris Farlowe. Stevie Wonder. The Drifters. Wilson Pickett. Elton John (then Reg Dwight). Clapton. Sonny Boy Williamson.

Upstairs, the casino tables turned.
At the bar, everyone had “their usual.”
And in the small hours, the music stretched beyond the script.

Just five minutes away was Dana’s flat — nicknamed “The Bunker” by Angie and David Bowie — the after-party sanctuary where the night never really ended.

And those such as Dana Gillespie, who were among the first to discover the Marquee Club in its earliest days, say that walking into Temple of Art and Music today reminds them of that original Marquee spirit — the small West End basement where The Rolling Stones first performed in 1962, where Bowie, Led Zeppelin, The Who and Pink Floyd once squeezed onto a tiny stage before the world caught up.

Intimate. Close. Unpredictable.
A room where you stand next to the music — not miles from it.

And on Wednesday, that room belongs to Dino Baptiste.

One of Britain’s most electrifying blues and boogie pianists, Dino has been one of Dana Gillespie’s longest collaborators, sharing stages around the world — including opening for Bob Dylan at Wembley and jamming with Mick Jagger at the Mustique Blues Festival.

Now he hosts a full-throttle Boogie Woogie & Blues Jam Party in The Bunker at TAM.

This isn’t a setlist concert.
It’s a jam in the purest London tradition.

Musicians stretching out.
Improvisation.
Sweat on the walls.
You close enough to feel the piano shake the floor.

If you want to say you were there before it became a story —
this is where you start.

The Bunker at Temple of Art and Music
Elephant and Castle
One night only.

Come underground.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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