The people's 101: nights out

Downstairs the BGWMC is the same working men’s club – with many of the same working men – that it’s been for 50 years. Upstairs it’s a retro-tinted home to cutting-edge entertainment including comedy, cabaret, magic and, if Diane Evans is to be believed, ‘nights of shameless and spontaneous decadence and debauchery’. Ooh Diane!

A much-loved gem is The Lexi, in suburban Kensal Rise, a tiny digital cinema with a wonderfully eclectic schedule and a pledge to donate all profits to a township in South Africa.

The home of the English Folk Dance and Song society is every bit as eccentric as you’d expect. As well as promoting barn-dancing, quadrille, ceilidh and country dancing, the venue hosts less active and more contemporary entertainment and, accordingly to folkie Jane Newburgh, ‘a bar where men with major facial hair consume more beer than darts players do’.

A speakeasy-style hoochmonger behind a secret door, the ECC garnered votes for what Janet Gaumer summarised as its ‘orgasmic cocktails and brilliantly barking decor.’ Booking in advance is advised.

The Rooftop Film Club hosts al fresco screenings of classic movies (the likes of ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’, ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ and ‘Some Like it Hot’) atop buildings in Kensington, Shoreditch and London Fields.
See latest Rooftop Film Club events

For those who like their live music challenging, unpredictable, improvised or just plain weird, Dalston’s Cafe Oto is the nuts. With ‘an intimate vibe, spot-on acoustics and beers from the Kernal microbrewery,’ says Jonathan Douglass, ‘it’s every muso’s dream venue.’

If Secret Cinema (motto: ‘tell no one’) hoped to remain a cult concern, they’ve failed miserably. Readers L Hesks and Stephanie Haywood are among many thousands of fans of this monthly gathering that once drew 15,000 cinephiles to Alexandra Palace to watch Lawrence of Arabia. Visit www.secretcinema.org for details of screenings.

The Royal Court Theatre remains hugely popular with Time Out readers, who highlighted the £10 Monday tickets as a major bargain.

Southwark Playhouse has established itself as the go-to place for exciting, inventive theatre, and its dark and musty space in the vaults beneath London Bridge station offers bags of character. With its pay-as-you-go pass, Southwark Playhouse also proves to be fantastic theatre at fantastic value.

Recently voted London’s best music venue by Time Out readers, this Grade-I listed gothic masterpiece hosts the free Daylight Music series most Saturday lunchtimes where, says Tim Britton, ‘you can see a lot of people introducing their children to music’. Nice.