THE CURZON HOUSE - Its History, its French Roulette Plaques, its Chips

The buildings that the Curzon House occupied were home to the Curzon family for many years. The title was Earl Howe. The large house was composed of 4 smaller houses (No. 20 - 23 Curzon St.) that the 4th Earl had joined together and remodeled.

After World War I, the house fell out of family hands and was occupied for a while by the Duke and Duchess of York while their own house in Picadilly was completed. They later became King George VI and Queen Elizabeth (now the Queen Mum). It became a club in 1939 and was very popular with the great land-owning families who didn't want to maintain a townhouse in London. It had 36 bedrooms available for members.

Bob Barnett and his brother bought the club in 1962 and converted in into a gaming club. For most of the 1960's, the club had 5 chemin-de-fer tables, baccarat, and 2 French roulette tables. It also had 12 poker tables as well as facilities for bridge and kalooki, a 13-card rummy game popular at the time. The Coral Group, a large bookmaking chain, later bought the club. By that time the laws had changed and so roulette, blackjack and punto banco (the type of baccarat played in U.S. casinos) were the main games, although they kept the poker and bridge rooms.

Between 1979 - 1981, there was an upheaval in London gambling, and several clubs were closed as a result. The main issue was violations of the credit laws. Some clubs were taking checks and allowing players who won to buy them back. This was strictly illegal, as checks had to be banked within 2 days. There were also marketing issues and other technical violations. The Curzon House Club and other Coral casinos were raided by some 400 police and records seized. The Coral Group, Ladbrokes, Playboy and others lost their licenses to run casinos.

The French Roulette plaques and chips used at the Curzon House are all individually numbered. Recently, I have been consigned a small number of 4 different denominations: a 2 pound chip, and 10, 50 and 100 pound plaques. As you can see below, these are truly beautiful pieces.

Recently 500 and 5000 pound plaques were offered in separate eBay auctions. The 500 pound plaque (eBay lot #172148940) sold for $237.50 and the 1000 pound plaque (eBay lot #172143005) for $182.50.

These can be added to your collection for the following prices:

2 pound chip = $24 = $1 P&H = $28
10 pound plaque = $39 + $1 P&H = $45
50 pound plaque = $48 + $2 P&H = $75
100 pound plaque = $75 + $2 P&H = $90
Set of all 4 = $199 + $4 P&H = $203

There is also a larger version of the 2 pound chip...1 7/8" diameter instead of 1 3/8." A scan of both will be provided in a post to follow. The larger 2 pound chip can be ordered as part of a 4 piece set for an added cost of $15, making the set with the larger 2 pound chip a total of $218, postage and insurance included.

To reserve any or all of these interesting pieces of English gaming history, please respond privately to this e-mail or call me at 1-888-CHIPS-97 (1-888-244-7797).

Terry Lazarus
Chips Off the Old Block
PO Box 57
Dallastown, Pa. 17313

Note: I would like to express my appreciation to Russ McDermott for much of this historical information.