At the Bus Palladium in Paris, Serge Gainsbourg scribbled lyrics on a table and Salvador Dalí arrived with a panther on a leash. Now the legendary Pigalle club begins a new chapter as a 35-room hotel designed by Studio KO, with its rock-and-roll spirit woven into the architecture.
It all began when James Arch rented the Ange Rouge, at 6 rue Fontaine, a dance hall for the elderly that was falling into disrepair. His mother lent him 200 old francs for the first week: the rocket was launched, and the club very quickly became legendary in Parisian nightlife.
At opening time in 1965, the young man himself worked the door, choosing his “film cast” each night. “I rarely refused entry to anyone, except for unpleasant, pretentious, or aggressive people. I wanted faces that inspired dreams,” he explains.
As for the name, he chose it as a nod to the Palladium, a famous New York nightclub that he dreamed about, mixed with a unique twist. “I decided to set up a bus system that would pick people up from the community centers in the suburbs (Argenteuil, Bois-Colombes, Asnières), and I put the perfect plan in place. From 9 p.m. to 11 p.m., three buses took all the young people from the suburbs to 6 Rue Fontaine. From 2 a.m. until 4 a.m., they brought them back. The ticket cost 10 francs, and you got a drink,” shares the visionary. “The concept thus gave rise to the name: the Bus Palladium.” It was a stroke of genius from someone who, living in the suburbs, never knew how to get home after midnight.