London's margin clubs

Blackdown

nexKeysound
I'd love to pool our collective knowledge on London's most interesting yet culturally inaccessible (to, um, Dissensians) clubs.

So i'm NOT talking:

Shoreditch
Soho/West End
Ladbrook Grove
Central Brixton
etc

I'm talking those places when you take a late night cab from Stratford through some industrial wasteland, take a left and suddenly the verges are packed with cars.

I'm talking the Turkish working mens clubs up Green Lanes, the place I went past on the Brixton Road at 5am on the nightbus after DMZ last Sunday morning that just had people hanging around outside it, shady backroom places, even Hackney squat parties, though they're a bit transitory...
 

Logos

Ghosts of my life
There is this place in Elephant I think which I always go past on the N35 (Southbound)...can't remember the name but it says "restaurant and night spot" as a subtitle and always has people hanging around outside and heavy looking security - always struck me as being interestingly shady.

It might be shit though.

Another place is on Carpenters Road/Waterden Road in Stratford, towards Hackney Wick. Its all going to be knocked down for the olympics but you occasionally get these roadblocks round there with hundreds of cars parked up on the verge...I like to think its some massive rave-like event in one of the industrial buildings there, completely off the cultural radar but I think its some religious thing.
 
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not sure how relevant it is considering that this venue is now completely out of comission.
but in Archway, behind the methodist church there used to be a theatre which was squatted and used as a rave venue every weekend - the wombles had parties there to fundraise. it was an amazing venue, completely graffiti'd (even the dome roof!) and so sinister, none of the toilets really worked either but they managed to get some big names to play there, Chris Liberator (techno dj) did a warm up set there before heading down to the fridge, an amazing place but sadlyall boarded up now.

down Holloway road there is a really dodgy looking Arican Disco Club or something, which always has people hanging around really late, though ive not been brave enough to try that one

on Kentish Town road, next to Chameberlain Cycles or something there is a boarded up shopfront, which occasionally, when the door is ajar, you can catch a peek of the 40 or so Ethiopian men sitting on the floor, smoking and drinking - its like a shabeen (ethiopian drinking den) although they may be somalians im not sure. I dont think that counts as a venue, but its really cool. I remember once at about 5 in the morning i went right up to the door to get a peek inside and it opened, a man in sunglasses looked at me, and then left. surreal.

if its a pretty stable squat you're after you could try rampart, its been going for 3 years now, with regular film nights and cultural nights etc... nice enough venue but with an emphasis on social centre/cultural learning as opposed to squat rave. its in whitechapel, website here

there are/were countless other squats but no real point in listing them all
thats all i can remember for now

btw are you sure the place on Brixton road at 5 in the morning after dmz wasnt PlanB? its always still going when i leave dmz
 

Blackdown

nexKeysound
Nah, Plan B's just any old bar by the tube station isnt it? This was some club that was far up Brixton road, nothing more than a doorway stood out. i'd dont know who you'd have to know to be able to just walk in, locals i guess...
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
Nah, Plan B's just any old bar by the tube station isnt it? This was some club that was far up Brixton road, nothing more than a doorway stood out. i'd dont know who you'd have to know to be able to just walk in, locals i guess...

Should know what this is, but don't...how far up, and what kind of building? :slanted:
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
And to add some more:

There used to be a soca club under the arches at Vauxhall...seems to have become a full-time restaurant recently, sadly....also another club on Stockwell road like the one you described on Brixton Road - always gangs of people spilling out onto the street...went to the (famous in rave days) Dungeons in Hackney about a year ago, and there were bizarrely only about 12 people there all night, yet the sound was amazing....
 

viktorvaughn

Well-known member
A different kind of marginality, but is there good raving to be had in the big gay clubs? And what music runs the scene there?
 

baboon2004

Darned cockwombles.
A different kind of marginality, but is there good raving to be had in the big gay clubs? And what music runs the scene there?

Some fantastic nights in Vauxhall, again, of which Bootylicious is the best I've been to - one room of house, but mostly dancehall/rnb/soca. Elsewhere it's fairly predictable, I think, with lots of hi energy house.
 

STN

sou'wester
There is this place in Elephant I think which I always go past on the N35 (Southbound)...can't remember the name but it says "restaurant and night spot" as a subtitle and always has people hanging around outside and heavy looking security - always struck me as being interestingly shady.

It might be shit though.
.


I think you're thinking of either Costello's (pizza restaurant and 4am booze-dive) or that underground karaoke bar. they're both okay.

Sadly missed in N16: Efes, Bunty's Rumshack.
 

lenny

Member
And to add some more:

....also another club on Stockwell road like the one you described on Brixton Road - always gangs of people spilling out onto the street...

I guess that would be the J Bar. It shut towards the end of last year - immediately after a refurb - among the same old rumours. The best thing about it was the jerk barbecue outside which used to run till the sun came up.

Nah, Plan B's just any old bar by the tube station isnt it? This was some club that was far up Brixton road, nothing more than a doorway stood out. i'd dont know who you'd have to know to be able to just walk in, locals i guess...

This could be one of a few places. There's a Nigerian restaurant/nightclub opposite Jamm which takes a somewhat relaxed approach to licensing law. There's also a new Colombian (I think) bar further up towards Oval which seems to share a building with a Seventh Day Adventist church.
 

benjybars

village elder.
Sadly missed in N16: Efes, Bunty's Rumshack.

yeah Efes was great.. used to play pool there sometimes after my mate had finished working at bar lorca.

there's BARE weird places around green lanes/wood green.. one particularly dodgy looking place up by the turnpike lane end of green lanes, mostly turkish/cypriot. There's a similar club, but mainly african it seems, by the manor house end of green lanes. And i'm determined to get into one of those turkish working men's clubs at some point, although haringey snooker club basically offers the same thing and i'm off there in about 20 mins:)
 

Blackdown

nexKeysound
there's BARE weird places around green lanes/wood green.. one particularly dodgy looking place up by the turnpike lane end of green lanes, mostly turkish/cypriot.

where's this? i know all the usual Green Lanes working men clubs, which are less interest to me as they have no music...
 

robin

Well-known member
this is perhaps a little of topic,but this thread reminded me of something i'm curious about,someone here might know.

a few months ago i was over in london visiting some friends who were in college there for a few months,and they were living near the turnpike lane end of green lanes.

there was this shopfront on the street there,just a little door and the window was covered with a half broken shutter,you went in and it was a small,long room getting gradually narrower and narrower (like in willie wonka),with all broken shelves and shit,and at the end of it there was a hatch,behind which there were kids selling weed.

so does anyone know what the story is with this?
are there places like this all over london?
if so,how do they get away with it?
its not like they were just there for a few days,the place was open every day from about 2-10 for the four months my friends were there.

also one day my friend was coming out of the shop,and the police were waiting outside,called him over,took the bag of weed and his name,yet ignored the shop itself,even though they knew enough about it to know that anyone coming out of there would have weed on him!
 

luka

Well-known member
the place in waterden road is famous. it keeps changing its name. club eq i think it is at the moment. i used to go there a lot in the late 90s cos i could walk there from my house. i like it. haven't been there for years though. heartless crew used to play there all the time. for those that have seen the conflict dvd you might just recognise it. its not religious things there at all. its the best club i've ever been too. heartless crew were heroes there at the time. everyone smiling and dancing, a real goodtime atmosphere. powerhouse was there too, waterden road, maybe the same venue but slightly before my time though. a big venue for jungle in the early 90s. i've been rex a lot too but probably most of you have that live in london. and palace pavillion too. to see reggae acts and that mostly.
 
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Blackdown

nexKeysound
The venue HLC lyrics mention is "Chimes" in Hackney, as where they cut their teeth originally. is this the same place? Maybe it isnt, I swear I saw it on the other side of Hackney marshes...
 

Blackdown

nexKeysound
there was this shopfront on the street there,just a little door and the window was covered with a half broken shutter,you went in and it was a small,long room getting gradually narrower and narrower (like in willie wonka),with all broken shelves and shit,and at the end of it there was a hatch,behind which there were kids selling weed.

i've never seen anything like this in Green Lanes, though it sounds like a very blatant variant of the urban myth that goes if you order a certain dish ("43a with rice") in certain takeaway restaurants you get weed too. Not seen it myself though there was once a bar rumoured to sell coke by credit card in Balham, but I never tried it as coke is for fools...
 

luka

Well-known member
theres loads of legit buisnesses that sell weed in london., i know about 3 in gate, and 1 in hackney, and 1 in aldgate they're just the ones i've been too\ there must be some in every neighbourhood. its not an urban myth, theres cab offices, barbers, takeaways, garages...
 

luka

Well-known member
no, chimes is different. thats offically hackney but eq has a e15 postcode. this place they used to do crispy biscuit there and their dj used to play there solo somet\imes too.
 

robin

Well-known member
theres loads of legit buisnesses that sell weed in london., i know about 3 in gate, and 1 in hackney, and 1 in aldgate they're just the ones i've been too\ there must be some in every neighbourhood. its not an urban myth, theres cab offices, barbers, takeaways, garages...


this place only sold weed though,and there was nothing else in it
 

IdleRich

IdleRich
There's a place in Hackney on the cut-through behind MacDonalds from Dalston Lane to Kingsland Road (or whatever it's called at that point) where they seem to have African (Ghanaian perhaps?) parties at the top of a tower block type building. Coming back there late at night I've often heard music and one time I went up and tried to get in but they told me it was members only.
 
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