# Peter Evans (restaurateur)

Peter Evans (28 December 1926 – 19 July 2014) was an English restaurateur. He opened one of Soho's first coffee bars called The Cat's Whisker. He also founded the Peter Evans Eating Houses, which were known for their trendy decorative style.
Peter collaborated with two other young creatives: interior decorator David Hicks, and architect Patrick Garnett of Garnett Cloughley and Blakemore. According to Malcolm Newell in his book "Mood and Atmosphere in Restaurants," they established the decorative style that epitomized London during the Swinging Sixties, providing vibrant and trendy dining and dancing experiences for the affluent. The fashion trend setters of the era included Twiggy, Biba, Mary Quant, Teddy Boys, Cecil Gee, John Stephen, and Carnaby Street. In 1965, Evans was recognized as the "Beau Brummell" Best Dressed Man by the Clothing Manufacturers' Federation.
In 1967, Evans launched the members-only Raffles nightclub on King's Road in Chelsea, which retained the original Hick's design until 2007. The club attracted notable figures of the sixties, including Princess Margaret, Princess Anne, and Prince Charles. In more recent times, the younger generation of royals, including Prince William during his courtship of Kate Middleton and Prince Harry with Chelsy Davy, frequented the club.

## Early life

Peter Evans was born in Highgate, London. His father, Lionel Oliver Evans, was an inventor and builder.
After attending Belmont, Mill Hill, Evans worked briefly in his father's business before moving to Ghana, West Africa. In Ghana, he worked with the Daily Mirror's West African subsidiary, the Daily Graphic, as their African correspondent. He covered Wimbledon tennis events and became dedicated to tennis.
When he returned to London, he joined Roy Wallace-Dunlop, a self-confessed cigarette smuggler from Casablanca, and opened The Cat's Whisker, one of the early coffee bars in the area, featuring Spanish dancing and espresso.
When Wallace-Dunlop left the partnership, Evans partnered with Robin Eldridge. They changed direction first by installing a jukebox and later by featuring live music. The Cat's Whisker quickly became a popular destination for young people flocking to Soho to listen to Lonnie Donegan's skiffle music and Tommy Steele's rock 'n roll.
Because of space limitations, The Cat's Whisker became the birthplace of the hand-jive dance style, which did not require as much dance floor space. It became popular with trendy customers such as emerging filmmaker Ken Russell.

## Restaurateur

After The Cat's Whisker was closed due to overcrowding, Peter Evans formed a partnership with accountant Tom Beale and butcher Reg Eastwood. They opened the first Angus Steak Houses at the previous location of The Cat's Whisker, 1 Kingly Street, Soho.
When the partnership with Beale and Eastwood dissolved, Evans opened Peter Evans Eating Houses (PEEH) in various locations, including Fleet Street, Chelsea, and Kensington. Evans enlisted the designer David Hicks and the architectural firm Garnett, Cloughley, and Blakemore (GCB) to design the PEEH restaurants. In 1967, Hicks designed Raffles, one of Evans's most enduring restaurants.
Evans, Hicks, and Garnett together and separately influenced style trends in the 1960s. The GCB portfolio included the revolving restaurant atop the Post Office Tower, the Chelsea Drug Store, a boutique on King's Road, and the George V Hotel in Paris. Hicks created the distinctive fork logo for the Peter Evans Eating Houses.
In 1964, Evans collaborated with illustrator Willie Rushton on The Anti-Bull Cook-Book, published in hardback by Anthony Blond. In 1967, a paperback edition titled The Stag Cook Book: A Low Guide to the High Art of Nosh was released by The New English Library - Four Square.

## Back to the pen

Peter Evans faced personal and business pressures, including a divorce in 1965. In 1969, he sold his holdings in Peter Evans Eating Houses to Norman Lonsdale, his banker.
He moved to Brisbane, Australia and married his second wife, journalist Gail Wintour. During his time in Brisbane, he wrote the magic-comedy television series "The Martin St James Show" for The Reg Grundy Organisation on the 10 Network and a 13-part radio program titled "Earthquake," showcasing modern music for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
While living in Sydney, Evans freelanced for The Australian and The Bulletin and became a regular contributor to Scope, a weekly radio program on ABC.
Evans later returned to the UK and founded a merchant bank named Montgomery Evans. He attempted to repurchase Peter Evans Eating Houses and the nightclub Raffles from Norman Lonsdale, but they had already been sold to boxers Billy and George Walker. He wrote a novel for New English Library about population growth and indifference to global hunger entitled "Megadeath." In it, Evans predicted that methane from meat animals would impact climate change. As a consultant, he also did work for a children's charity.
Evans attempted to return to the restaurant business, first by introducing a fusion food concept, which did not gain traction. Another concept chain, The Vertical Refreshment Company, offered in-house games and discounted drinks in a dynamic pub environment. Opposition from brewers eventually lead to its failure.

## Publisher-writer

Peter and his wife Gail later moved to rural Pembrokeshire and turned their experience of transitioning from city to country living into a practical guide called "Guide To Village Riches." They also wrote a series of e-books, exploring drug-free treatments for common yet persistent ailments.
One such ailment is insomnia. Writing under the pen name Zachariah Evans, Evans wrote "Sleeplessness Cured: The Drug-free, Quick and Proven Way," which earned the 'Best Social Invention' award from the London Institute for Social Inventions in 1993. In 1994, Evans and his wife received an Honourable Mention from the same institute for their book "Cigarette Addiction Permanently Cured."
They have also published the findings of their research on the validity of star signs.
The couple became disillusioned with governance and politicians and developed a model of governance they believed would address pressing global challenges while safeguarding taxpayer funds from misuse. Evans suggested permanently closing the Houses of Parliament, which he saw as expensive and redundant. He believed video-conferencing technology could eliminate the need for a physical Parliament and allow representatives to effectively serve the people, without unnecessary expense.

## The not-so-private life thumbnails

Peter Evans's flare for the dramatic often put him in the public eye. His restaurant The Cat's Whisker was so popular, it became Coca-Cola's largest single UK customer, according to reports. However, it became dangerously overcrowded and was shut down by the police in 1958. Evans had a falling out with his partners in the first Angus Steak House in Soho after an incident involving beer throwing.
After founding the Peter Evans Eating Houses, he had a falling-out with his bankers, Kleinwort Benson Lonsdale when he discovered that the bank's representative was planning to take over his role as chairman of the board. In response, Evans decided to terminate the representative's employment.
Evans's private life included many extravagances such as Bentley motor cars, Turnbull & Asser shirts, Lobb shoes, and Savile Row suits, along with high-stakes gambling and numerous romantic relationships, including one with diva Barbara Leigh. Evans's first wife, Yolanda and her mother disguised themselves to gathered evidence of adultery to use in the divorce case. Evans expressed surprise at the dramatics, noting that obtaining evidence wasn't particularly difficult.
Evans played poker with many well known men such as journalists David Spanier and Peter Jenkins, actor Roger Moore, painter David Hockney, writer Alan Williams, and impresario Michael White. One card-playing acquaintance was John Bingham, who was later known as Lord Lucan and alleged to have been involved in the murder of Sandra Rivett in 1974. Evans opined that Lucan should come forward and prove his innocence.
Evans occasionally played at John Aspinall's Clermont Club, where luck supposedly favoured the house, as suggested in Douglas Thompson's book "The Hustler's" and Channel 4's documentary "The Real Casino Royale." Alleged cheating lead to a falling out with Aspinall, but Evans later forgave him because of Aspinall's passion for animals, asserting that humans, rather than animals, would be the ones to destroy the planet.
Evans, David Frost and Bryan Forbes temporarily took ownership of Private Eye magazine to help the publication overcome financial difficulties. Evans's and Frost's multimillion-pound redevelopment project of a property on King's Road fell through when another participants, Robert Maxwell, withdrew due to financial problems.
Evans made headlines on various occasions such as his arrest during a board meeting. He was handcuffed and taken to Savile Row police station for failing to pay parking tickets. On another occasion, his dispute with a church generated headlines because his restaurant signage with David Hicks's stylized PEEH fork pointing toward the church drew disapproval from church elders.