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Run by Jack Braceland, one of the earliest light show artists in the UK, Five Acre Lights was named after the nudist colony he ran with his wife in Watford.
The middle-aged Braceland, a wacky beatnik
character, originally turned up at the London Free School which was run by Hoppy in the All Saints Hall, Notting Hill, London in Autumn 1966. This was the precursor to UFO which began at The Blarney Club Tottenham
Court Road in December 1966. Alongside other light show artists like Mark Boyle, Joe Gannon and John Massara, Jack Braceland was
given a corner of UFO to screen his liquid light show using hand assembled wet slides and Aldis projectors.
In mid 1967 he opened his own psychedelic club, Happening 44, in a dingy old strip club at 44
Gerrard Street, London right in the heart of Soho's Chinatown. The small club regularly featured The Social Deviants, Fairport Convention and The Sam Gopal Dream all illuminated by Braceland's Five Acre Lights.
Happening 44 reign was brief. It closed in late Autumn 1967 by which time UFO had also closed leaving
Middle Earth as London's only psychedelic hangout. Braceland crepy quietly back to his nudist colony and was not heard of again.
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