London’s 38 best nightclubs

Moments away from the overground, Colour Factory is a Black-owned nightclub and music venue in the heart of Hackney Wick. It’s known for spotlighting female, non-binary, and queer artists, and has an excellent programme of low-key nights during the week in addition to their sell-out weekend events. 

Brought to you by the people behind Printworks, Drumsheds is a huge multi-level, multi-room cultural space in Tottenham’s old big Ikea. There are three separate dancefloors, five different bars – including a 25,000 sqft bar in the main 15,000 capacity room – as well as 48-metre-long LED screens and an outdoor terrace and food court. Expect huge clubbing line-ups, daytime events and gigs. 

If you thought east London is past its clubbing prime, think again. FOLD is a brand-spanking-new club venue, blessed with a 24-hour licence. Located in a non-residential area between Bow and Canning Town, it’s also conveniently close to the Jubilee line and its night tube service.

The Cause is a grassroots venue through and through. After closing the doors to its OG spot in Tottenham in 2021, it opened a new club in Canning Town the year after, to the pleasure of London’s clubbing community. It has multiple rooms, is rough around the edges and its far-off location gives it a bit of an illegal rave vibe – in other words, you can expect some of the best, most exciting parties in town. 

A hip nightspot in Hackney from the team who run the Shacklewell Arms and Lock Tavern, Moth Club is a former trade hall that houses a military veterans’ club alongside its hipper clientele. It borrows its name from the Memorable Order of Tin Hats, an order of ex-military servicemen and women who still regularly meet and drink at the venue. Regardless of the recent refurbishment, these words ring true, right down to the last commemorative plaque. Well, almost. The venue’s back room has been entirely covered in gold glitter, a look which somehow works remarkably well with the retro, dated interior. 

Corsica Studios is an independent, not-for-profit arts complex whose ethos is to breed creativity and culture in areas of regeneration, which it achives primarily through putting on some of the most cutting-edge club nights, one-off parties and gigs in London. 

It’s not easy these days to go for a big night out in west London, which is what makes the scruffily chic basement bar at NHAC such a draw. For the last 25-odd years, they’ve hosted regular hip hop nights, indie band showcases, jazz gigs and events run by local heroes, making it a hub of creativity which is hands-down infectious. It’s also had a pretty impressive clientele in its time: Lily Allen, Rita Ora and The Libertines all owe their first shows to this venue.

A three-floored warehouse-style venue in an old tube carriage, Electrowerkz is the choice for alternative nightlife in the capital. There’s the weekly goth night, Slimelight, that blasts industrial and darkwave tunes, as well as sex-positive nights like Kaos. It’s a place to get lost in, in more ways than one. 

This Kingsland High Street hangout is a bit of a face on the east London party scene. In true Dalston style it’s home to all: popular with a large and diverse LGBTQ+ crowd, but welcoming to all and everyone. 

The first time I went on a night out in London, my big brother took me to Fabric. Matador was playing, and it was a religious experience. Going for 25 years, Fabric is one of London’s longest standing, most iconic nightclubs. Punters regularly get lost inside the labyrthine space that’s set up in an old Victoria meat warehouse, but that’s just part of the fun. With a vibrating dance floor and one of the best sound systems around, Fabric is a must for any electronic music lover. 

The people behind Corsica Studios have opened another excellent club in south London. This is a small DIY-feeling no-frills space with a banging sound system and top notch programming. Come here to dance to some of London’s best underground DJs – they have nights playing everything from psytrance to Italo disco. Oh and by day, it’s a lovely taco restaurant. 

It may be about as far north as a lot of us are willing to venture for a night out, but Unit 58 is also one of the most refreshing venues in London. The staff are bubbly, the parties are flaming hot and the DIY-feeling space itself is pretty spectacular: a high-ceilinged warehouse with a mezzanine and a massive sparkling disco ball. There’s a reason why this place attracts some of the trendiest Gen-Zers around. 

This Brixton club has a similar feel to XOYO: a sleek, dark cavern with plenty of space for dancing. The programming leans very much towards the leftfield side of dance music – don’t expect cheesy ’80s nights here, it’s quality underground house, techno, disco and bass all the way. 

Hidden away in an unassuming business park, Venue MOT is a warehouse-style venue in a former MOT centre. With limited signage and a stripped-back interior, it has a stomper of a sound system, late licensing and exciting bookings supporting up-and-coming promoters. A serious FU to commercial clubbing.

A hugely welcome addition to London’s music and nightlife ecosystem, this newish two-roomed venue has a fantastic arched main room, replete with exposed brickwork. The bar room also doubles as a second room for club nights – and on the right night can feel like an absolute riot.

This industrial-ish space in Tower Hamlets is owned by the same team that ran Oval Space. Sitting directly opposite that venue, TPF did indeed used to operate as a working pickle factory, but after being used for foodie pop-ups and exhibitions in 2013, the intimate venue was fully revamped as an excellent club and live music space.

The Pickle Factory will temporarily close from August 25 2024 until 2025. 

Missing The Glory, the infamous London pub that was a key part of the capital’s queer scene? The Divine is the new venue run by that much-missed space’s team and owned by iconic drag queens Jonny Woo and John Sizzle. Located just a short sashay down the road on the site of long-lost Dalston bar Birthdays (gosh, remember that place?) the venue is similarly split across two floors; a main bar upstairs where you can enjoy a quiet(ish) drink, and a performance venue in the basement. Head down to check out the ecclectic programme of outré cabaret shows, drag competitions and fringe theatre, before dancing until the small hours as the place transforms into a sequin-studded, drag-fuelled, pop-tastic disco.

RECOMMENDED: ‘Dark, sexy, shambolic’: an oral history of The Glory

On the top floor of a building in the centre of the Harringay warehouse district, Low Profile Studios feels more like partying in an artist’s studio than a London club. Nights are usually thrown by emerging promoters across the whole spectrum of dance music, and the space is as interesting as you’d expect: a wall of various arty bric-à-brac, a chill-out mezzanine space, and plenty of peculiarities to keep you entertained. 

Housed in an ornate Grade II-listed building, Koko in Camden has a long history and dazzling reputation as one of London's most iconic music venues and indie clubs. It recently underwent a massive £70 million restoration and introduced KOKO Electronic, the venue’s new weekend clubbing series.

It doesn’t sound like a place for an exciting night out, but behind the sedate name is one of the most consistently creative bars in London. The Book Club is a popular, laid back, lived-in basement spot that originally helped Hoxton earn its hip title – and at the weekend, it’s packed out with clubbers, playing all of the latest R&B, grime, pop and more. 

This Brixton live music venue and bar boasts a bit of a reputation for the diversity of its programme, with everything from roots and reggae to hip hop, underground Latin, European gypsy folk and ska. There are comedy nights, too. 

This intimate 80-capacity Hackney basement venue is run by the same folk behind the legendary Fold (need we say more?). As well as a friendly community of regulars and a vibrant programme of underground DJs, the space itself is ideal for a full sweaty one. It’s low-ceilinged, loud, and you can get very close to the decks to see exactly what is spinning. 

Okay, strictly this is not a club: it’s a buzzy arts hub on a south Bermondsey industrial estate, which functions as a café, music venue, club and cultural centre all rolled into one. It does, however, put on some of the most fun club nights around, with a proper community ethos and eclectic programme of events. 

The roving nightlife destination has taken up permanent residence under some party-ready railway arches along Hackney’s aptly named Bohemia Place, with a stellar line-up of live music and DJs keeps those arches rumbling – even after the overground stops its service. Night Tales also comprises the largest beer garden in the neighbourhood, which is conveniently covered in the winter months for year-round revelry. 

If more venues made an effort to design their rooms as cosily splendid as this place then we’d all be happier. The upstairs bar is one of those joints you just know you’ll enjoy kicking back in. Imagine sultry dimmed lights, in a large room with a hint of loft space with a conscious nod to comfort via sofas and you’ve got an oasis of calm in a bustling district. Open daily for cocktails and a broad playlist of house, jazz, funk, soul, disco and R&B, it also hosts regular weekend DJ nights. 

You can’t miss Village Underground thanks to the four brightly coloured, graffiti-covered tube carriages, now artists’ studios, perched on its roof. Its renovated Victorian warehouse space hosts exhibitions, concerts theatre, live art and – most impressive of all – some amazing club nights.

The Outernet building is like an iceberg: there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface than meets the eye. From ground level, it’s all flashy projection screens amidst the buzz of the West End; underneath, it’s an enormous subterranean multi-purpose entertainment venue, going four storeys deep. HERE at Outernet hosts live music, club nights, performances and more in its high-tech cavernous space. 

Formerly (and still commonly) known as Vogue Fabrics, this bijou Dalston basement hosts drag and spoken-word events as well as genre-spanning club nights and parties. As its name suggests, it attracts a creative and fashion-conscious LGBTQ+ crowd who love to dress up (though no one will really care if you rock up in sneakers and a polo top). VFD has the chutzpah to host club nights with names like Cuntmafia and Sassitude, but never takes itself too seriously. The venue’s most famous feature is the massive penis mural in the loos.

Established in 2010, this excellent Shoreditch venue quickly cemented itself as one of the most on-point clubbing spaces and gig venues in London, thanks to a booking selection that ignored genre and simply focused on quality.

Located in a former bus depot, Ministry of Sound was once the epitome of warehouse cool and is still perhaps the UK’s best-known clubbing venue: thus, any self-respecting fan of dance music in any form should visit Ministry at least once.

Simon Hammerstein hit the scandalous jackpot with his New York club when it opened in 2007, combining flagrantly outrageous shows with high-rolling clientele and tales of behind-the-scenes controversy. Early in 2011, he opened the London branch on the site of the old Raymond Revue Bar to tabloid squawking. You probably won’t get in unless you have very deep pockets (table reservations are several thousand pounds) and/or know someone. If you do make it in, get ready for a boujie night which is suitably outrageous.