The Fight to Keep London’s Nightlife Alive

London is known for its thriving nightlife and the fact that there is always something on wherever you are in the city. OK, maybe not if you’re in Canary Wharf or Dagenham but London does have a reputation around the world as a city that knows how to party and that knows where the good music is being played. In recent times, however, that music scene has run into a bit of trouble.

A massive 50% of the capital’s nightclubs have been shut down in the past five years and about 40% of its live music venues were forced to close between 2007 and 2015. Considering the fact that demand for live music, and music tourism in general, is on the rise it is difficult to understand why so many iconic places like the 12 Bar Club on Denmark Street, where Adele had her first gig, have been forced into oblivion.

One of the main reasons for the closures is London’s rising property prices. Steadily climbing rents and a resulting increase in business rates have made it harder for venues to stay alive and a lot of landlords have sold their venues to property developers to turn the spaces into flats. Another reason is the failure to recognise music venues in planning and development rules. When councils or property developers build new flats or houses the threat to music venues is often overlooked and there is no need for planning permission when turning office spaces into residential flats.

Ministry of Sound learned that the hard way when an apartment block was proposed right next to the club, forcing it to spend more than £1m on acoustic treatment, legal fees, and planning consultancy. Finally, when people are looking at renting or buying a new property estate agents are not legally obliged to let them know about any surrounding venues. That often leads to noise complaints and sanctions on venues which have been operating at the same level of noise for years without any problems.

What is being done?

So what can you do if your favourite venue is under threat? You should start by writing to the local MP where the venue is situated and let him or her know why the venue is important to the community. You should also stay updated with the venue’s social media as it will tell you what you can do to help. What is London doing about this? In 2015 the then Mayor, Boris Johnson set up a music venues task force in order to understand what needs to be done order to save the city’s nightlife. The current Mayor Sadiq Khan appointed Amy Lamé, a comedian and Labour Party activist, as “night tsar” in 2016  in order to make sure London remains a 24-hour city. Her first successful battle was the reopening of the world-renowned club Fabric, which had been closed down last year due to drug-related deaths.

Khan made it clear in his election campaign that he saw London’s nightlife as key to the city’s economy and cultural life and that he did not want people in the creative industries to move abroad because of restrictions in London. Khan supports the “agent of change” principle which means that developers will have to pay for any costs incurred by venues due to residential buildings being built nearby. Let’s just hope the agent of change principle gets implemented sooner rather than later as we need these clubs and venues to ensure emerging artists have a space to nurture their talents and grow into the international superstars they are meant to be.

by Dominic Luca

The post The Fight to Keep London’s Nightlife Alive appeared first on Felix Magazine.