A heritage plaque honouring Newton Dunbar and the Four Aces Club, the Dalston nightclub he founded, is to be unveiled this month.
The ceremony will take place at Hackney Archives, on the second floor of Dalston CLR James Library, at 2pm on Saturday 24 October, during Black History Month.
Family members, friends and officials are expected to attend. Members of the public can reserve a free place through Eventbrite.
The week after the unveiling, the plaque will be put up on Collins Tower, facing onto Dalston Lane. The club originally stood on that site, at 12 Dalston Lane.
Hackney Council said the building’s owner had given permission for the plaque to be installed there.
The council said the wording on the plaque was developed with Dunbar’s family. It commemorates both the club and the man who ran it.
Dunbar came to London from Jamaica and opened the Four Aces in the 1960s in the disused Dalston Theatre building. It became a focal point of the city’s West Indian music scene, hosting reggae, soul and soundsystem nights, with acts including Desmond Dekker, Jimmy Cliff, Percy Sledge and Ben E King.
In the late 1980s it became the Labyrinth acid house club. The building was demolished in early 2007 to make way for Dalston Junction station on the extended East London Line.
As the Hackney Citizen reported in 2008, the club’s story was told in Winstan Whitter’s documentary Legacy in the Dust: The Four Aces Story.
Sam Mathys, cabinet member for culture, nightlife, resilience and business standards, said: “In Hackney, we are proud to celebrate the heritage and culture of our Black communities all year round.
“Honouring Newton Dunbar – a true pioneer of London’s Black Caribbean music scene and the founder of the legendary Four Aces Club – with a heritage plaque during Black History Month celebrates this extraordinary impact.
“The Four Aces showed what a community space can achieve, shaping music and building a legacy far beyond our borders. We owe it to Newton and to that legacy to ensure future artists and communities continue to have spaces and opportunities to innovate and thrive.”
