Camdenist Culture Campaign is back in fighting form, as this week’s main feature takes a good look at the challenges currently facing our phenomenal cluster of fringe theatres, backroom comedy clubs and assorted cherished performance spaces.

These stages are where the entertainment culture we all love is first formed, the big stars of tomorrow get their first break, and new audiences get hooked on the joys of live entertainment.

But it sure seems harder than ever to survive, so we spoke to a range of local venue owners, promoters and directors about the issues - and the solutions - in keeping the show on a road near you.

Read the feature: Supporting Camden’s Theatres and Grassroots Performance Spaces now, then go out and see a local show this week. 👌

FOOD & DRINK

🔑 As new local members club The Dally prepares to open, we round up more local lounges with a touch of exclusivity

Over on Islington’s Upper Street, a brand new neighbourhood-based members club concept is due to open its doors any day now.

The Dally will provide day-into-night hanging out, eating, drinking and a programme of events for locals who don’t want to travel too far to get their refined social fix.

The female founder duo came up with the concept over shared local school gate pickups, and are aiming to appeal to the post-Covid WFH generation with a club on their proverbial doorstep.

The handsome Victorian townhouse The Dally now occupies has had many incarnations over the years. Hands up those who remember it as the Medicine Bar, Albert & Pearl, Double Frank Bar, House of Wolf, Dead Dolls House, Upper House or Jack’s Bar?

Until KOKO opened their members club in 2022 (see below), you’d have to venture into West End clubland proper for a touch of velvet rope and deep sofa exclusivity that was pretty much absent out ‘in the sticks’ of Camden and Islington.

So let’s hope this latest endeavor hangs around, and the latest fickle shifts in work and social trends don’t scupper the idea for this historic building like so many of the concepts before it.

With Soho House currently taking a bashing, accused of becoming global club house Ponzi scheme, we like the idea of such off-West End spaces doing the whole membership thing a little differently - just as long as members can bring in well-chosen penniless creatives as guests, too, of course. 😉

12 more (semi-exclusive but mostly accessible) local spots to try

🎷 Nola’s is a note-perfect Jazz Era speakeasy hidden down a passageway behind the food and music hubbub of Lafayette and Goods Way in King’s Cross. The intimate lounge seats 50, so you can take over the whole place if your group is big enough, and it’s open until 4am on club nights, when you can also pop next door for a dance.

🎹 Frith Street’s Arts Theatre Club was a one time illegal drinking den and playground of the notorious gangland Kray Twins. The venue has a rare unbroken connection to the illicit Soho of the past, and with a solid 3am drinks license every night (it’s open Tues-Sat), you won’t be the only one making a late beeline there when everything else shuts.

🍸 Slap bang at the centre of the well kempt King’s Cross estate doesn’t feel like the most likely location for a clandestine watering hole, but once you head down into the bowels of the pink R7 office block, you are rewarded with SUPERMAX. It feels reassuringly hidden and definitely decadent, with conspiratorial neon-lit banquettes, swathed in heavy velvet curtain all around.

🐗 Fitzrovia’s Lucky Pig has all the feels of a prohibition era subterranean drinking club accesses with a wink to the doorman by those ‘in the know’, but once you descend its iron stairs in the shadows of nearby BT Tower, you’ll find its open to all thru until 2am (weekends).

🪩 Flush local music lovers might want to consider splashing out on a membership to House of KOKO, the exclusive members club that sprawls out high above Camden Town’s eponymous live venue. Inside you can enjoy DJ sets in the iconic copper dome, live jazz out on the roof terrace restaurant or in a number of intimate and luxurious lounge bars, even play your own vinyl in special listening rooms, and all with an unbeatable 5am license at the weekend.

🐦‍⬛ Hanway Street has long been known for its afterhours basement speakeasys, so with a 2am weekend license and a very keenly priced cocktail menu, Murder Inc is a perfect hidden spot for an overconfident nightcap on the route home.

🍬 Hotels are always a safe bet for elevating your night out into something akin to a members club experience, and Euston Rd’s The Standard is an ideal choice for such a dalliance. Sweeties is the late night lounge (open until 2.30am at weekends) with floor-to-ceiling windows with a serious view, or you could cosy up in the former Council library on the ground floor. You might even splurge on a meal at Decimo up the red pill lift on the 10th floor, that’s open super-late.

🍷 Likewise, head into Phillip Starck’s St Martins Lane Hotel, where behind the façade of a boutique tea counter with a secret golden hand-shaped handle you can find the speakeasy style lounge of Blind Spot. Open Thurs-Sat until 2.30am

SOMA Soho is very much a cocktail bar in look and approach, but with room for only 23 guests, a secret booth in the back behind a curtain, plus a 3am weekend license, you can easily feel like you’re inside the most privileged of hotspots. Drinks vear towards the Indian subcontinent on account of this being pat of the excellent Kricket restaurant above.

🚂 It’s only open until midnight, but the eye-popping grandeur of The Midland Dining Room’s Gothic Bar is enough to make anyone feel like they are a member of a very exclusive club. It’s unashamedly pricy to match, but is sure to impress a date, if that’s your game.

🧱 For a candlelit Berlin-meets-NYC secret warehouse vibe, Below Stone Nest on Shaftesbury Ave really delivers the shabby chic VIP atmosphere. A chalk board of libations and free live music or DJs until 2am, plus a walk-ins only policy mean it’s accessible to join the select crowd.

🚪 And one for this summer... the Carnaby quarter’s swish but defunct former private members club The Court is currently being turned into the latest ‘house party’ themed bar in the highly popular Little Door empire. The Little Violet Door will open on Kingley St soon.

STAGE

Support a community stage refurb with a load of local celebs

MUSIC

5 diverse live delights

(If you didn’t catch the latest on this fast-moving story, check the Camden Art Cafe Instagram,

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