Clubs

It is a truth universally acknowledged that young people in possession of good fortune must be wanting new places to party. This is why boat party trips are so appealing (the view is always changing), why Mayfair venues require million-pound revamps to re-inspire their rich clientele, and why clubland is gradually shifting eastwards. The search for nocturnal novelty isn’t the only reason that promoters and party people are looking east (and south) of Shoreditch. They’d go almost anywhere if it means they can dance all night – or, if they’re not feeling energetic, just talk bullshit – without too many hassles and hindrances. The main hurdle to partying around the clock are those usual suspects, the neighbours. Feature continues

Shoho packs 120-plus bars and clubs into a tight triangle of streets which are also home to converted warehouses and swanky loft-style apartments: hardly a recipe for a perfect marriage. While the local borough, Hackney, taxes both residents and local businesses, there was no way they were going to keep both happy following the recent changes to the licensing laws. Many Shoho venues applied for 24-hour licenses, but Hackney gave little more than one-hour extensions to some of the bars – although appeals are pending.

In the meantime, many promoters have already moved elsewhere. It’s Commercial Street, Commercial Road and the streets around the two Aldgate tube stations that mark the latest nightlife frontier. The after-parties in Kingsland Road arches and Dalston warehouses that were such a feature of last summer are far more likely to happen around the back streets of Whitechapel in 2006, but what may seem surprising is that some of them will be legal. Slack Alley held great warehouse parties in Dalston last summer (see Preview) and their move into the Sub Club this weekend is partly because one of the floors has such a basic, Victorian warehouse feel. The Goulston Street venue opened last weekend and has the advantage of having a 6am license and a very chunky sound system. ‘Everyone seems to be wanting a piece of us now,’ says the bookings manager Simon Fell. ‘We’ve got some really exciting stuff coming up. It’s two sides of east London in one building really, because we’ve got the smart area in the bar downstairs (which has just had a £350,000 refurb), but it’s much more gritty upstairs.’

Bar 54, round the corner at 54 Commercial Street, also combines two floors very effectively. The quirkily stylish white chairs of an Indian/Thai restaurant upstairs make for a very comfortable bar, which is something even non-stop hedonists appreciate at 6am. Incredibly, Bar 54 plays host to 6am-starting after-parties on Saturday (Penetration) and Sunday (Zombies Ate My Brain), and last week a new Monday morning carry-on opened there which kicks off at 3am. It’s called Ruined, with very good reason.

Bar 54 sure makes the most of its 24-hour licence (Late Night Audio and Shrunken Head are also there on Friday and Saturday nights respectively) and there are other venues in the area, like Departure on Crutched Friars, which are also set to maximise their rolling party potential. Many of the venues in Tower Hamlets do not have near neighbours as those in Shoreditch often do, and consequently the borough has been able to apply the 24-hour licensing differently. Sosho, situated just south of Old Street, which is home to the excellent Sunday nighter Retox, have also applied to operate round the clock, while some of the warehouses which are currently only used for members’ parties are looking to operate as fully fledged clubs. The Alhambra building at the start of Commercial Road, a four-storey former bonded warehouse with double-height floors supported on beautiful iron columns, is one of them.

Nightlife has always migrated to where property is cheaper and there are fewer neighbours to worry about, but in Bethnal Green, as it was in Hoxton, it’s the artists, and later gallery owners, who really blaze the trail. You only need to see the multitude of contemporary art galleries on Viner Street, off Cambridge Heath Road, to see which way the wind is blowing – clue: it isn’t west. How long before the Nightlife vanguard gets to Bow and Stratford? One thing’s for sure, long before the Olympics arrive, the East End is already going to be jumping and running. And probably all night long.