For week two of our culture campaign series we’re focusing on nightlife, and in particular how we maintain the peerless legacy of London’s late night clubs.

These venues are often incubators of artists and culture that goes on to have a global impact, but they are having a desperately tough time right now on multiple fronts, so need our support.

Striking a really positive note, in this week’s in-depth feature, we’re given exclusive first media access to a brand new venue just off Tottenham Court Road that has the potential to revive the West End’s ailing nightlife, while providing a dynamic new community space for locals from across Camden.

As we’ve said many times before, nightlife is the crucible of culture, the place where ideas become movements, and creativity gets the space to truly fizz, so as with the local pubs we championed in last Friday’s newsletter, this time we look at the 10 key challenges facing late night venues, plus the interesting developments at Camden Town Hall this week, which have seen a new pro-nightlife approach tentatively making its way to being implemented.

It’s long overdue that we recalibrate our relationship with the challenges - and the joys - of life out and about after hours, so hopefully there’s plenty of food for thought.

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Subscribe to Camdenist Premium and we’ll send you £100 of independent London pub discounts via CityStack as a thank you. You’ll get special invites to our upcoming events, too, plus will be direct helping this newsletter campaign for culture, each and every Friday.

🤘 Tonight through until Sunday is the Celestial Darkness Festival, showcasing extreme metal and happening variously across Camden’s Underworld and Electric Ballroom, plus over at Islington’s 02 Academy, too. Expect the heaviest of music from 26 of the world’s top bands in the genre.

🔊 Bone-rattling dub sound Aba Shanti-I brings the booming Notting Hill Carnival vibes into Parkway’s Jazz Cafe tonight (Fri 1st March) selecting the sacred dub and soulful reggae vibes through until 3am.

🎙️ 23-year-old self-taught BRIT School protege and her band, Ellie Harris Quintet, offer an evening of soulful jazz from a London songstress to watch out for, at Pizza Express Live Holborn on Sunday (2nd).

🎭 Local actress Tracy-Ann Oberman has penned Bette and Joan and Baby Jane - The Musical, which harks back to the twilight of the careers of two of Hollywood’s biggest ever stars in the early 60s. Tracy joins the cast on stage for this one-off show at JW3 on Monday (4th)

We love a game of ‘guess the crowd’ outside the 02 Forum Kentish Town, and on Thursday (7th) you’ll find an eclectic bunch of devotees of Norway’s Kaizers Orchestra, who sing in their native tongue but have amassed a global following.

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📊 LAST WEEK’S POLL RESULT

What do you think about BT Tower bring sold off to a hotel group?

Love it - a new lease of life for defunct communications infrastructure
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 54%

Not bothered - it's just another building to me
🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️⬜️ 16%

Feeling sad - its the end of an era and another posh hotel is the last thing we need
🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ 30%

Our biggest poll result to date 😲 with loads of comments left, too. The iconic tower clearly has a place in the hearts of most locals, and the new owners would be wise to take heed of the popularity of a return to the revolving restaurant... Here’s a selection of your feedback:

“At least now the public will be able to go in! I never thought I'd be saying that hotels are egalitarian, but sort of...”

“I hope they bring back the revolving restaurant!”

“It is good news.  It’s been inaccessible for decades.  Now it’ll bring life, vitality and diversity to Fitzrovia.  And footfall!”

“Hadn't realised it was totally defunct so anything that will reopen its doors is good.”

“I feel it should be open to the general public - like a tech museum or some such… of course with a revolving bar/restaurant still at the top!”

“It’s such an iconic building, and since childhood I always hoped one day to go up to the revolving restaurant at the top. I managed to visit the Statue of Liberty, including the crown, so why not (what will always be to me) the Post Office Tower?”

“I have mixture of emotions - I’d rather the Tower be a hotel than be torn down, but I wish there were more creative, interesting and viable solutions.”

“Put a nice Section 106 on it to allow public access to the top and Bob's your uncle!”

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