When we dined with a clown at Simpson’s

Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, London. ‘In past years such great clowns as Charlie Chaplin and Grock were celebrated visitors.’ Photograph: Amy Heycock/The Guardian

I was in harmony with Grace Dent’s review of Simpson’s-in-the-Strand (Simpson’s-in-the-Strand, London WC2: ‘A rollicking list of cosy British joys’ – restaurant review, 12 April). In past years such great clowns as Charlie Chaplin and Grock were celebrated visitors. It was later the haunt of clown Max Wall, who loved the menu of old English fare. As close friends, the writer Michael Pointon and I spent leisurely lunches while Max entertained us with his memories of variety. He always ordered roast leg of lamb followed by treacle pudding, washed down with a bottle of Beaujolais Villages.

On one spring day in 1990 after our meal and his usual byplay with the admiring staff, Max had a fall on the steep stairs and remained unconscious until an ambulance arrived to take him to Westminster hospital, where he died that evening.
Paul Foxall
Collingbourne Ducis, Wiltshire

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