Long regarded as one of the most prestigious streets in Warsaw, Foskal was born in the 18th century when it was established as a private park and place of leisure targeted at the rich and famous. Named after London’s Vauxhall, it was from here in 1789 that the Frenchman Jean-Pierre Blanchard started out on the first hot-air balloon flight undertaken in Poland.

Decades later, the street finally began taking its current form with elegant tenements and palaces sprouting up. Then popular with aristocrats and industry magnates, it has retained a prime reputation to this very day. Partially, that’s thanks to the presence of such places as Chaton, a glamorous live entertainment spot launched earlier in the year. Located at Foksal 19, and appearing fittingly lavish, the management couldn’t have picked a better spot if they tried.

However, Foksal 19 was just as impressive from the inside. Something of a sports hub, the building allowed for year-round fencing practice and gymnastics inside its spacious halls. Moreover, it housed the WTW’s offices as well as ball rooms for charity events, receptions, and cultural events. Authors Henryk Sienkiewicz, Stefan Żeromski and Bolesław Prus were among those who passed through the doors enroute to glitzy engagements. Though gutted by fire during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, the building refused to buckle and by 1946 it resumed its activities.

In modern times, it has continued to reflect Warsaw’s taste for the finer things in life – at the start of the millennium, veteran expats will remember Soma, an American-run brewery-bar that offered locals one of the few Western-style experiences in the city. Later, for years it ran as the elite Foksal 19 club, and an international beer mecca called Sketch, before enjoying infamy as a go-go club notorious for drugging its clientele.

More recently, it was revived as FHouse, an exclusive club aimed at the super rich. Having had its opening delayed by an arson attack commissioned by a jealous business rival, the grand launch was then called off after the pandemic swept Poland. Now reinvented under new operators as Chaton, this luxurious building is again enjoying a fresh lease of life.