DJing at the Foundry in Old Street several years back, which finally closed today. I’ll miss it!
I also hear Fabric as of today is in receivership, Astoria, The End, Turnmills, Ghetto and Scala are also gone for various reasons over the last year or two.
It seems a lot of the small bars and mid-sized clubs are going to make way for the Olympics to be developed as overpriced hotels and CrossRail, and a few like Fabric to the current economic woes. I hope it’s worth the death of a lot of smaller venues that were the lifeblood of London’s musical scenes – because ironically all those visitors will arrive in 2012 looking for ‘cool London’ will otherwise find a nightlife that consists of depressing chain pubs and mega-O2 venues only – the very life they came to look for will have been cleared out to make way for Olympics PLC.
But of course that sort of local character is never preserved; with the stupid laws on small venues that came in a few years back they’ve succeeded to help the megapub chains and kill the smaller places which struggle against the Wembley and O2 arenas, rather than foster a local creative culture.
Still not all bad – I see the free raves are back. Will this be the summer of free rave parties again? Ones out of the range of sponsors and brewery control? I hope so.
EDIT: Fabric is still open, despite being sold. It’s sister club Matter though has closed…
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I am truly sad to see The Foundry go, it was one of my favourite bars in London. Sitting out in the evenings, watching the world go by, I’ll miss it…
As for Fabric, i’m shocked! Mind you, having said that, i’ve always said the place was poorly designed and that the space between the rooms was larger than the rooms themselves. Also, as Fabric looks to pass, Matter seems to be gaining momentum, judging by all the adverts i see for it on DJ music sites…
I’m afraid to tell you Matter has closed too – that’s what pulled Fabric down as they were a sister club and gave them a loan.
http://www.junodownload.com/plus/2010/05/26/fabric-on-the-verge-of-administration/
And Fabric has been put up for sale:
http://www.junodownload.com/plus/2010/06/02/fabric-put-up-for-sale/
Fabric is still open apparently – it’s just up for sale. Matter is the one that has closed: http://www.datatransmission.co.uk/ViewNews/5034/
I loved the place, bit of a shame they wouldn’t take card when I was in there – real pain in a A$$…
…sad to see it go!