The 9 best clubs in Liverpool

This impressive (and very eclectic) venue hosts a huge variety of club nights, regulars and one-offs alike. One week it’s power ballad night, the next a tribute to a legend like Prince, and with big-name touring DJs popping by too, hitting up Camp and Furnace is like dipping into a club night selection box. Check their events calendar so you don’t get your Swingers Club mixed up with your Bongo’s Bingo.

Described as being for ‘homos, heteros, drag shows and don’t knows’, and hailed as ‘the club that saved Liverpool’, Sonic Yootha thrives because its playlist is as eclectic as they come – think Kylie and Patti Smith back to back. With a welcoming door policy that means you can go with both your same-sex partner and your mum, this is the Baltic Triangle’s most inclusive club (and probably the most fun).

If Sonic Yootha serves a more alternative slice of the inclusive clubbing pie, think of GBar as its more mainstream non-binary family member. This LGBTQ+ after-hours club is a self-declared ‘Liverpool institution of homo hedonism’, making it the place to head to when everywhere else has lost its charm, but you’re just not ready to call it a night…

Set over three floors and with a strapline claiming it offers ‘clubbing on another level’, it’s very obvious what this place is all about. Level’s six rooms offer varied choice – house on the first floor, R&B and hip-hop on the second, and a more chart-y playlist at the top. Just don’t expect to hear any Level 42.

No guide to Liverpool’s best clubs would be complete without mentioning Electrik Warehouse. Spread across three floors and four separate rooms, the city’s largest central club plays a good mix of indie, pop, punk and rock, with regular nights like Thursday’s Shit Indie Disco and Saturday’s Pandamonium drawing big crowds. Reasonable drink prices mean it’s a classic among students.

Fusion is Liverpool’s principal clubbing destination, and for good reason. Offering its 1,000-plus crowd some of the most impressive sound and lighting of any club in the north, this is a big space for a big night out, and you’ll love it. There are regular student nights, too.

A popular hangout in Liverpool’s LGBTQ+ quarter, the Navy Bar puts on raucous club nights aimed very much at a younger, party-hungry crowd. At weekends it’s throbbing, and groups of revellers can make the most by booking a booth and ordering in some shots.

A club with a theme – tattoos, not calligraphy – Ink Bar boasts both excellent cocktails and a dazzling interior splashed with atmospheric wall art. What’s more, you can get yourself fake and real tattoos while you’re there, and anyone who wants a sharp new trim can get a haircut from the in-club barber on select nights.

What to do with an elegant Georgian townhouse, formally home to wealthy shipping merchants, when it’s no longer a private residence? Turn it into one of Liverpool’s best and buzziest clubs, that’s what. A tremendous setting – you can really get lost in its nooks and crannies – isn’t quite enough to make somewhere a must-visit venue, so it’s fortunate clubbing in Heebie Jeebies as enjoyable as the building itself. Students should head to Liquidation on Saturdays.

It’s true testament to Liverpool’s fondness for community that the good ol’ boozer remains at the heart of the city’s sense of self. And when you think that your great-great-grandparents may have enjoyed a pint in some of these, you do get a sense that they might be filled with spirits in more ways than one.