English publican and socialite Muriel Belcher was born in 1908 and died on this day in 1979. Born in Birmingham to a Jewish family, little is known about her early life. During World War Two, she ran a nightclub in Leicester Square in central London. In 1948, she opened the private members’ club The Colony Room at Dean Street in Soho, which became a haven for Bohemian cultural life. Openly and raucously lesbian, she and her Jamaican girlfriend Carmel attracted a number of gay and lesbian patrons, creating a haven for queer social life in an era before the legalisation of homosexuality. She formed a close friendship with the artist and founder member Francis Bacon, whom she called “Daughter” and paid a weekly retainer to introduce new patrons. Other prominent members included John Deakin, Henrietta Moraes, Lucian Freud, George Melly, Isabel Rawsthorne, Jeffrey Barnard, Reggie and Ronnie Kray and Daniel Farson, with celebrity visitors including Henri Cartier-Bresson, Princess Margaret, William S. Burroughs, David Bowie and Christopher Hitchins. Famous for her rudeness, her favourite insult was “cunt”, with “cunty” used as a term of affection. She posed for a number of portraits by Bacon, adding to her mythic appeal. She died in 1979, aged 70 or 71. Now a legendary figure in London cultural history, she was portrayed by Tilda Swinton in John Maybury‘s 1998 film Love is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon. Rodney Ackland’s 1952 play Absolute Hell, a portrait of a louche Soho drinking club overseen by the imperious landlady Christine, is also thought to be based on Belcher.