Heaven

Music and nightlife

Under The Arches, off Villiers St

Heaven © Piers Allardyce

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Time Out says

Thu Oct 18 2012

When it opened its doors in 1979, Heaven was revolutionary. London's first gay superclub, it was the birthplace of Hi-NRG and acid house, a magnet for gay celebrities and mounted the most spectacular stage shows seen in clubland. But it hasn't been on top of its game for some time, rarely matching the standard set by Vauxhall rivals such as Fire. Still, with the closure of the Astoria and the subsequent move of G-A-Y to Heaven, the club has experienced something of a renaissance. Thursday now hosts G-A-Y Porn Idol, Fridays G-A-Y Camp Attack and Saturdays are reserved for the G-A-Y club night proper. It's not all a gay fiesta, however, the roomy Heaven also lays on live indie nights.

10

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Venue location

Address:
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St
WC2N 6NG

Website:
www.heaven-live.co.uk
Transport:
Tube: Embankment
Map
1. Heaven
  - Under The Arches, off Villiers St
    WC2N 6NG
  - www.heaven-live.co.uk
  - 51.508088,-0.124097

Categories:
Dance. Music. Classical & Opera. Pop and rock. Alternative rock. Electronica. Indie rock. Pop. Comedy. Clubs
Occasions:
Lively atmosphere. Lots of laughs

Map

What's on at Heaven

G-A-Y Camp Attack

LGBT

Critics' choice

Jeremy Joseph's busy retro night. Three rooms play everything from the '70s to the present.

Fri May 24
– Sat May 25
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£3 (£1 with flyer)

The Covent Garden Comedy Club @ Heaven – 11th Birthday Gig

Stand-up

Critics' choice

Now in its tenth year, this long-established club isn't actually in Covent Garden, but under the arches of Charing Cross. You can see circuit stalwarts and rising comedy stars here, every Saturday night. Tonight it's an anniversary special, with the club...

Sat May 25
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£10-£15

G-A-Y

LGBT

Critics' choice

London's biggest commercial gay night is spread over three floors and continues to pack them in, week after week. The main floor features pop and live PAs, The Star Bar plays electro house, The Island and Pop Room plays '80s and '90s. Regular theme nights...

Sat May 25
– Sun Jun 30
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG

Popcorn

Clubs, LGBT

A mixture of club kids, students and scene queens make this the busiest night at Heaven. Special extended sets from Adam Turner and Jamie Hammond plus DJs on rotation playing all the best pop, top 40 chart and guilty pleasures.

Mon May 27
– Tue May 28
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£4 before 1am, £8 afterwards

G-A-Y Camp Attack

LGBT

Critics' choice

Jeremy Joseph's busy retro night. Three rooms play everything from the '70s to the present.

Fri May 31
– Sat Jun 1
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£3 (£1 with flyer)

The Covent Garden Comedy Club @ Heaven

Stand-up

Critics' choice

Now in its tenth year, this long-established club isn't actually in Covent Garden, but under the arches of Charing Cross. You can see circuit stalwarts and rising comedy stars here, every Saturday night. Tonight's bill features MC Erich McElroy, Ian Moore,...

Sat Jun 1
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£10-£15

Popcorn

Clubs, LGBT

A mixture of club kids, students and scene queens make this the busiest night at Heaven. Special extended sets from Adam Turner and Jamie Hammond plus DJs on rotation playing all the best pop, top 40 chart and guilty pleasures.

Mon Jun 3
– Tue Jun 4
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£4 before 1am, £8 afterwards

Camera Obscura

Categories, Music

Critics' choice

Lindsay Boyd and her Camera Obscura crew do their misty Glaswegian indie-pop thing, playing from their new album 'Desire Lines'. Early champions included John Peel and Belle And Sebastian's Stuart Murdoch, who produced their debut album.

Thu Jun 6
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
Sold Out

G-A-Y Camp Attack

LGBT

Critics' choice

Jeremy Joseph's busy retro night. Three rooms play everything from the '70s to the present.

Fri Jun 7
– Sat Jun 8
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£3 (£1 with flyer)

The Covent Garden Comedy Club @ Heaven

Stand-up

Critics' choice

Now in its tenth year, this long-established club isn't actually in Covent Garden, but under the arches of Charing Cross. You can see circuit stalwarts and rising comedy stars here, every Saturday night. Tonight's bill features MC Martin Coyote, Owen...

Sat Jun 8
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£10-£15

Popcorn

Clubs, LGBT

A mixture of club kids, students and scene queens make this the busiest night at Heaven. Special extended sets from Adam Turner and Jamie Hammond plus DJs on rotation playing all the best pop, top 40 chart and guilty pleasures.

Mon Jun 10
– Tue Jun 11
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£4 before 1am, £8 afterwards

G-A-Y Camp Attack

LGBT

Critics' choice

Jeremy Joseph's busy retro night. Three rooms play everything from the '70s to the present.

Fri Jun 14
– Sat Jun 15
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£3 (£1 with flyer)

The Covent Garden Comedy Club @ Heaven

Stand-up

Critics' choice

Now in its tenth year, this long-established club isn't actually in Covent Garden, but under the arches of Charing Cross. You can see circuit stalwarts and rising comedy stars here, every Saturday night. Tonight's bill features MC Tom Toal, circuit stalwart...

Sat Jun 15
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£10-£15

Popcorn

Clubs, LGBT

A mixture of club kids, students and scene queens make this the busiest night at Heaven. Special extended sets from Adam Turner and Jamie Hammond plus DJs on rotation playing all the best pop, top 40 chart and guilty pleasures.

Mon Jun 17
– Tue Jun 18
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£4 before 1am, £8 afterwards

These New Puritans

Categories, Pop and rock

Critics' choice

The precocious art-rockers from Southend, These New Puritans, are back with their third album 'Field of Reeds'. With a new line-up (and a new obsession with Egyptian mythology, by the looks of it), they fuse Wu-Tang Clan, The Fall and Edward Elgar into...

These New Puritans

Wed Jun 19
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG

G-A-Y Camp Attack

LGBT

Critics' choice

Jeremy Joseph's busy retro night. Three rooms play everything from the '70s to the present.

Fri Jun 21
– Sat Jun 22
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£3 (£1 with flyer)

The Covent Garden Comedy Club @ Heaven

Stand-up

Critics' choice

Now in its tenth year, this long-established club isn't actually in Covent Garden, but under the arches of Charing Cross. You can see circuit stalwarts and rising comedy stars here, every Saturday night. Tonight's bill features MC Phil Dinsdale, Adam...

Sat Jun 22
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£10-£15

Popcorn

Clubs, LGBT

A mixture of club kids, students and scene queens make this the busiest night at Heaven. Special extended sets from Adam Turner and Jamie Hammond plus DJs on rotation playing all the best pop, top 40 chart and guilty pleasures.

Mon Jun 24
– Tue Jun 25
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£4 before 1am, £8 afterwards

G-A-Y Camp Attack

LGBT

Critics' choice

Jeremy Joseph's busy retro night. Three rooms play everything from the '70s to the present.

Fri Jun 28
– Sat Jun 29
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£3 (£1 with flyer)

The Covent Garden Comedy Club @ Heaven

Stand-up

Critics' choice

Now in its tenth year, this long-established club isn't actually in Covent Garden, but under the arches of Charing Cross. You can see circuit stalwarts and rising comedy stars here, every Saturday night. Tonight's bill features MC Kate Smurthwaite, middle-class...

Sat Jun 29
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£10-£15

Flume

Categories, Pop and rock

Australian production wunderkind Harley Streten – still only 20 – mixes soulful vocals with Soundcloud-approved beats.

Wed Jul 3
– Thu Jul 4
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£5

Tunng

Indie rock, Folk

Blending electronica and acoustica, Tunng are experts at crafting skewed but solid folk-pop melodies. They're due to release their sixth album this year, so ask for your money back if there's no new material played tonight.

Tunng

Tue Oct 8
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£13.50

Atari Teenage Riot

Alternative rock, Electro-rock

Critics' choice

The seminally abrasive perpetrators of digital hardcore, led by Alec Empire and Nic Endo, showcase prime cuts from 'Is This Hyperreal?', their only album since they reformed in 2010. It's a politicised take on the information era, with lyrics about hacking,...

Atari Teenage Riot

Thu Oct 24
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£15

Little Boots

Categories, Pop and rock

Critics' choice

Victoria Hesketh, she of the tiny feet and cosmic disco-pop tunes, returns with hot new material. She's got a new album, 'Nocturnes', to play from, and her synthy sounds are as prettily fragile as ever.

Little Boots

Thu Nov 28
Heaven Under The Arches, off Villiers St, WC2N 6NG
£12.50

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Comments & ratings

(6 ratings)

had a really good night last night loved it defo going again soon

aaron Sun Nov 18 2012
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had a really good night last night loved it defo going again soon

aaron Sun Nov 18 2012
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DONT WASTE YOUR MONEY! the worst club you could ever go to! the staff and bouncers are racist ! so dont bother wasting your time and money.

mike Thu Nov 8 2012
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yuck yuck yuck

Vånesså Mon Jun 4 2012
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yuck yuck yuck

Vånesså Mon Jun 4 2012
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One year on from the previous reviews, nothing has changed with this ridiculously awful place. I agree the door policy is abusive and discriminatory - don't waste your time travelling to this club on the off-chance you will be turned away, moved about or generally insulted by the inexperienced and aggressive door staff. Back in the day when hosted at Astoria G-A-Y was a fun, welcoming place which encouraged all ages, sizes and types to mix together in relaxed harmony - it used to be a refreshing place in a 'gay scene' which is traditionally obsessed with looks and glamour. Sadly The Astoria was tragically knocked down and for some reason G-A-Y chose its new home at Heaven. The place now attracts a "hip young crowd", tagged along by fake blone hair fag hags or groups of "trendoids". Having boycotted the place for some years now following an awful night immediately after the relocation, we decided to return TWICE in the last few weeks to see if the place had changed....sadly not. The first time we were "selected" to leave the queue and join another queue right on the other side of the building, only to find out the other queue was 10 times longer and had already been informed that if in that queue only "members" would be getting in...awful, given that we were practically inside in the original queue. Upon returning last week we were told we were "too drunk" by a "head bouncer" who appeared from nowhere and hadn't actually seen us - as it was 12.30 am OF COURSE we had been drinking, but no, we were not drunk - we attempted to discuss the matter with the young cronies of "head of security", i.e. to demonstrate we were talking rationally and not aggressively, we simply wanted to know upon what basis we were "too drunk" but no, we were shouted at to "get out of the queue". Yes, we are in our 30's, so perhaps this was the reason...disgusting. Upon leaving a young twink screeched at me that I hadn't been asked to leave because we were too drunk, but "because your hair looks like straw". This kind of confirmed that the place was not for me anyway and will NOT be returning. Bring back the old G-A-Y....or just go to Vauxhall instead.

Gareth Mon May 21 2012
Rated as: 1/5
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Very unpleasant and pretencious staff, atmosphere is not a patch on Astoria that preceded it

Dan Sun Apr 1 2012
Rated as: 1/5
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horrible place, horrible staff and horrible atmosphere!

simon, midlands Wed Oct 26 2011
Rated as: 1/5
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You are great. ;)

Robert Wed Jun 15 2011
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This nightclub uses intimidation to harass patrons. Whilst dancing in the nightclub, the management lifted mine and my companion's handbag. We initially thought they were lost, so went to enquire if they were handed in at the coat desk. This is when management informed us that they had our bags and would not return them as they wished to 'make an example of us'. We were taken to another area of the venue and physically surrounded by the manager, security and bar staff who repeatedly used aggressive behaviour, including forcefully grabbing our arms when making the point that we are the 'worst people that has ever been in the club'. We find this hard to believe as, although our sobriety was marginally compromised, our behaviour was close to exemplary. This behaviour is never excusable, however could be understood if we acted out of turn. This wasn't the case. Neither me nor my companion were rude or unruly. We simply made the mistake of leaving our bags unattended, which were stolen - by the venue - who refused to return them and our property to 'make an example of us'. We're still not sure what they meant by this, and surely this amounts to theft. The venue eventually returned our property and barred us.

Katrina Gilmore Sat Jan 29 2011
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