Heaven

In a London diary entry dated July 10, 1986, Heaven appears as a nighttime meeting place where Andy Warhol, Billy Boy, and Chris Makos encountered Gloria Thurn und Taxis and her husband Johannes. The club’s importance in the account lies less in any description of its rooms than in the social tensions that surfaced around the meeting and followed it.

The London Encounter

Warhol records going to dinner and then to Heaven, where the group met Gloria Thurn und Taxis and Johannes. He noted that Gloria seemed to be courting her husband. Billy Boy and Chris Makos were also present, placing the encounter within the company Warhol was keeping on the London trip.

The Dispute Afterward

Warhol’s later account identifies Heaven as the setting for a disagreement between Billy Boy and Chris Makos. Billy Boy had behaved sweetly toward the couple, but after they left he said he hated them, calling them fascists. Chris objected. Warhol speculated that Billy Boy may have been upset at not being invited to their party, but presented this as a possibility rather than a confirmed explanation.

A Social Setting, Not a Backdrop

The diary gives no architectural description of Heaven; instead, the venue is defined by who met there and what happened after they parted. The encounter became a small test of manners and allegiance: Billy Boy’s friendliness in the couple’s presence contrasted with his denunciation afterward, while Chris’s anger made that contradiction consequential within the group. In this account, Heaven marks the point at which a London social outing turned into a dispute among Warhol’s companions.