Bob Potter OBE was one of British entertainment’s great promoters and venue owners, best remembered as the founder of the legendary Lakeside Country Club at Frimley Green in Surrey. Over more than five decades he built Lakeside from a comparatively modest entertainment venue into an internationally recognised home of cabaret, live entertainment and, famously, world darts.
Before establishing Lakeside, Bob had worked as a musician and show promoter and had been involved with some of the biggest names in popular entertainment, including The Beatles and The Rolling Stones. His experience of the entertainment business would prove invaluable when, in the early 1970s, he purchased Wharfenden House and its surrounding grounds and lake at Frimley Green and began developing what became the Lakeside Country Club.
Lakeside quickly established itself as an important part of the British cabaret circuit.
Bob had an instinct for attracting major performers and creating the kind of venue where audiences could enjoy some of the biggest stars of the day in a relatively intimate setting. Over the years the Lakeside stage welcomed an extraordinary collection of entertainers, including Tommy Cooper, Morecambe and Wise, Bob Monkhouse, Tom Jones, Diana Ross, Marvin Gaye and Sammy Davis Jr.
For anyone interested in the history of British variety, Lakeside occupies a particularly important place. At a time when the traditional variety theatre circuit was changing rapidly, venues such as Lakeside provided a new home for comedians, singers, musicians and cabaret performers who had spent their careers entertaining live audiences.
Bob understood that tradition and built his venue around it.
In 1978, disaster struck when the original Lakeside Country Club was devastated by fire. For many operators, such a loss might have meant the end of the business. Bob instead rebuilt, creating a larger venue and continuing to develop the complex. The rebuilt club reopened the following year and its reputation continued to grow.
Over the years the Lakeside operation expanded considerably. Bob developed hotels, restaurants and other leisure businesses around the site, turning what had begun as a local entertainment venue into a substantial family-run leisure complex.
However, to millions of people around the world, Bob Potter and Lakeside became forever associated with darts.
In 1986, Lakeside hosted the BDO World Professional Darts Championship for the first time. It became the championship’s home for more than three decades and one of the most recognisable venues in the history of the sport. Legendary players including Eric Bristow, Jocky Wilson, Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld competed on its famous stage.
Bob became one of darts’ most loyal supporters.
When changes to tobacco advertising eventually brought an end to Embassy’s long association with the World Championship, Lakeside itself stepped in as a major supporter and sponsor. Even through difficult periods for the British Darts Organisation, Bob remained committed to the championship and to preserving Lakeside’s place as the traditional “Home of World Darts.”
The association became so strong that, for generations of television viewers, the name Lakeside became almost interchangeable with the World Championship itself.
Yet darts was only part of Bob Potter’s contribution.
At heart, he remained an entertainment man. Through Lakeside he provided work and a stage for generations of performers and helped preserve the tradition of live cabaret at a time when many of Britain’s traditional variety venues were disappearing.
He was also widely recognised for his charitable support and philanthropy. His contribution to entertainment, business and charitable causes was formally recognised when he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, OBE, in 1993.
His close connection with entertainment and his support for charitable causes also brought him into the extended family of the Grand Order of Water Rats.
Bob Potter was made Companion Rat No. 835.
The title of Companion Rat has traditionally allowed the Order to recognise valued friends and supporters who, although not necessarily performers themselves, share the values of fellowship and charity upon which the Grand Order of Water Rats was founded.
For Bob Potter, whose life had been spent supporting performers, providing stages for entertainers and giving generously to charitable causes, that association was particularly fitting.
Bob continued to be closely identified with Lakeside throughout his life. Even as the entertainment industry changed around him, the venue remained a remarkable reminder of the great British cabaret club tradition he had helped create.
He died peacefully following a short illness on 14 April 2023, aged 94.
His legacy remains visible at Frimley Green today.
Lakeside Country Club continues as a family-owned venue, but its walls also tell the story of a remarkable period of British entertainment. Photographs of comedians, singers, musicians and sporting champions record decades in which some of the greatest names in showbusiness passed through its doors.
Few venue owners become as closely associated with their building as Bob Potter became with Lakeside.
He was a promoter, businessman, philanthropist and, above all, a great supporter of entertainment.
Companion Rat No. 835, Bob Potter OBE represents an important part of the wider Water Rats story: not only the performers who stood in the spotlight, but the people who gave them somewhere to stand, supported their profession and shared the Order’s long tradition of friendship and charity.
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