 Mankowitz was an original investor in the Partisan Coffee House, a meeting place for the New Left just off Soho Square, functioning from 1958-1962.During the late 1960s, he was part-owner of the Pickwick Club, in Gt Newport St, off Charing Cross Road, Soho, London W1, where the Peddlers, a pop group led by Roy Phillips, were resident.Mankowitz also had a reputation as a playwright.