The Athletic Club and Social

VISION

The overarching purpose of our restaurant, bar and Jazz club that is Athletic Club and Social is to be a welcoming space of inclusion that drives social cohesion and to celebrate histories of sporting oppression, the excluded history of sport in South Africa. The building that houses our establishment was built by Herbert Tothill in 1900. The owner of the very 21st century Jazz club, Athos Euripidou, unearthed a photo of Tothill in his sports blazer. From this small moment was born the dream that is ACS, shaped by the buildings layout. In Athos’ imagination was born a Herbert Tothill who was pioneer of a different kind to that common at the time, a pioneer of social integration and inclusion. This Tothill opened a space, an underground space, in the building’s basement, a place for African and white athletes and their friends to meet in the gloomy dimly lit Trophy Room at time when to meet beneath the African sun as equals was impossible. In short, a place for everyone to move. Euripidou's vision is to create a space to uplift South African musicians particularly those who sidelined by Apartheid.

DOWNSTAIRS/TROPHY ROOM

As one leaves the Restaurant Bar, returning to the passage, one come to the stairs to the Downstairs, the Trophy Room. The wall one faces has photos from Drum magazine, all of which depict black sports men and women, engaged in a variety of sports, from golf to rugby. Descending and arriving in the actual Trophy Room, one sees a collage of pictures of Hugh “Bra Hugh” Maseleka (Pronounced “Mas-sek-el-a”). A titan of South African jazz, Maseleka was world famous despite Apartheid’s vindictive restraints. One of them depicts a trumpet Maseleka received from Louis Amstrong himself. Others, celebrates the close friendship Bra Hugh and Euripidou shared. There’s even a photo of an African martial arts team! On Thursday nights, this secret space plays host to upcoming and veteran jazz musicians from all over South and southern Africa.