10 of the best clubs in London
From warehouse rave spaces to sweaty basements, clubber and blogger Wil Troup selects the cream of London's club scene
•As featured in our London city guide
Wil Troup
guardian.co.uk ,
•As featured in our London city guide
Wil Troup
guardian.co.uk ,
Get down ... Cable, underneath London Bridge station
Cable
The pick of the SE1 spread, Cable is located in a train arch underneath London Bridge station. A two-room affair, complete with slick production and a generous outdoor smoking terrace. If you want warehouse vibes and a flushing toilet this is your place. The excellent We Fear Silence promote some amazing line-ups on a Saturday, with Metalheadz, Sunday Best, Deviation and Buzzin' Fly all holding regular parties showcasing everyone from Goldie to Ramadanman, and Fake Blood to Photek. Their shambolic Sunday morning after-hours club, Jaded, is definitely not for the faint-hearted. Crowd: serious clubbers, students.• 33a Bermondsey Street Tunnel SE1, cable-london.com
Great Suffolk Street Warehouse
The mother of all London warehouse rave spaces. This cavernous car park on Great Suffolk Street has become something of a trusty staple of late, where you can get lost among its many massive arches. Great Suffolk Street embodies the pop-up/warehouse vibe on the grandest of scales with makeshift bars and portable toilets a plenty. Recently it has played host to the likes of Carl Craig's 20 Years of Planet E, Mulletover with Seth Troxler, Eastern Electrics with Claude Vonstroke, Joy Orbison and Michael Mayer, Shake It! with Layo & Bushwacka, Cocoon parties and a host of others. Your trainers may look like they're ready for a museum when morning comes, but you're guaranteed a massive night out in exchange. Crowd: Mixed, Techno, House, Warehouse ravers, and out-of-towners due to proximity to London Bridge and advance group tickets sales.• Great Suffolk Street SE1, see Eastern Electrics' Facebook page
Dalston Superstore
The guiding light for "raving homos" (their words) in uber-hip Dalston. Dan Beaumont (Jam Factory/ex-Disco Bloodbath) and the lads from Trailer Trash have seen their baby grow into a bastion for gay nocturnal life in E8 in just two short years. A Berlin-style, open-plan upstairs bar gives way to the rave cave down below. Despite accommodating just 120 people, the basement has seen the likes of Erol Alkan, Optimo, Prosumer, Horse Meat Disco and the soon to be huge Azari & III grace its tiny booth. Impeccable music policy, day and night, and real gays to boot. Crowd: gay, hip, musically informed, locals• 177 Kingsland High Street E8, Facebook page, blog
Corsica Studios
Established by an independent arts organisation tasked with developing creative spaces in the city, the full breadth of nights here is testament to their ongoing vision of parties beyond the tried-and-tested house and techno blueprint. Housed in two incredible railway arches in Elephant and Castle, many argue it's the best space in London. Of their two excellent in-house nights, Off-Modern – a monthly art/music phenomenon with The Ransom Note's Nasty McQuaid in residence – packs them to the rafters every month, with everything from no wave to drone, and dubstep via electronica to indie, on the playlist; while Trouble Vision's "dubstep to disco with everything in between" policy has welcomed Rusko, Nôze, Zomby, and Justin Martin. Other regular nights include Bill Brewster's DJ History, Phonica Records and Bleep43. Crowd: left-field music heads, art students, hipsters, techno heads. • 4-5 Elephant Road SE17, corsicastudios.com
Plastic People
"Definitely one of the best small clubs in the world," according to DJ Zinc, Plastic People is a no-frills, low-ceilinged, sub-200 capacity boxroom, with a distinct lack of lighting and a heavy, heavy sound system. It was saved from the brink of extinction in 2010 by a huge grassroots campaign and has been home to dubstep, funky and bass institution FWD for more than half a decade now for good reason. Floating Points and Theo Parrish both host regular all-night sessions, as does Four Tet, who even went as far as penning a track in its honour. In a jungle of mediocre bars and faceless DJ pubs, Plastic People shines through as a true champion of new music. An institution. Crowd: those that know and those that want to find out.• 147-149 Curtain Road EC2A, plasticpeople.co.uk
The Star of Kings
An undiscovered basement gem in Kings Cross complete with a massive Funktion One sound system. Opened at the end of 2010. With Central St Martins College relocating to Kings Cross at the end of the summer, Star of Kings is perfectly pitched to capitalise on the area's regeneration. With a 150-capacity, dark, sweaty basement, the Thursday night "Slippery" session is already tempting the likes of Secretsundaze's James Priestly as well as Spencer Parker and Crosstown Rebels' Glimpse. Craig Richards (of Tyrant and Fabric fame) and Derren Smart's Shoplifter throw-down happens here monthly. Crowd: unpretentious. Everyone from after-work boozers to bona fide house heads.
• 126 York Way N1, starofkings.co.uk
The Loft
Alongside the sadly now defunct Basement on Hoxton Street, this loft space above the old Shoreditch railway station has spearheaded a renewed interest in Hoxton clubbing. Electric Minds have pretty much made this space their own with their excellent parties, but the incredible Optimo played all night long here recently. Distinct lack of toilets, but an amazing space regardless. Crowd: friendly, mixed, tech-edged, knowledgeable.• Above The Old Shoreditch Railway, 1 Kingsland Road E2, see Electric Minds' website and Resident Advisor
Fabric
Still the Daddy after all these years … who knows where we'd be without Fabric? Through the highs and lows of their 11-year reign, they've unrepentantly championed new, cutting-edge electronic music. You need only pass a cursory eye over their upcoming listings and current album releases to know that Fabric's finger is still firmly on the button; check the incredible new Pearson Sound mix CD, for instance. Their On & On parties rival Berlin's Berghain/Panorama Bar (the club opens at 10pm on Saturdays and runs continuously until 6am on Monday), and DJ Luciano has been known to play for almost 40 hours straight. Sporadic mid-week live gigs have included the recent full live debut of producer-du-jour Nicolas Jaar.Crowd: broad cross-section.• 77a Charterhouse Street EC1, +44 (0)20-7336 8898, fabriclondon.com
The Drop
Home to the incredible A Love From Outer Space, hosted by Andrew Weatherall and Sean Johnston (Hardway Bros), this is by far the best space in Stoke Newington and trumps pretty much all the other "basement clubs" farther south on Kingsland Road. Located underneath the Three Crowns pub, this is intimate clubbing at its best. Rising star Ali Love played live here last month alongside Dalston dons Disco Bloodbath. Crowd: friendly locals.• 175 Stoke Newington High Street N16, +44 (0)20-7241 5511
Paramount Bar
Upmarket clubbing at a higher level. Level 31 to be precise. London's answer to the Standard Hotel in New York or the top floor of Weekend in Berlin … only more pretentious. This glass-panelled venue on the 31st floor of Centre Point boasts views up and down Oxford Street and beyond, and is one of the finest and most criminally underused spaces in London. If there's ever anything half-decent on, go. Although you will need to remortgage your flat to get a round of cocktails in.
• Centre Point, 103 New Oxford Street WC1A, paramount.uk.net
Wil Troup runs the clubbing blog and listings website The Ransom NotePublished in the Guardian travel section here
