The Embassy proved to be successful and attracted a fashionable clientele it is generally seen as the London equivalent of New York's Studio 54. Norman, an entrepreneur, had started an earlier club, The Embassy, in Old Bond Street in 1978. The original hi-tech interior was designed by his partner, Derek Frost. Norman was also chairman of Burke's Peerage, the publishers. Heaven was opened in December 1979 by Jeremy Norman in a former night club called Global Village, which was housed in the arches beneath Charing Cross railway station, once part of Adelphi Arches, a large wine-cellar for the hotel above.