Rising rents, noise complaints and gentrification are putting our nightlife at risk, writer and DJ Bill Brewster warns in The Times
On Saturday, October 23, 1999, I walked from the Tube station in Farringdon, central London, down Cowcross Street and up to Smithfield Market. It was deserted, save for a new nightclub called Fabric, which opened for business that weekend, with me as one of its resident DJs.
Fabric plotted a new direction, rejecting superstar DJ culture, which meant I regularly had control of Room 1, with its vibrating Bodysonic dancefloor (a robot masseuse for the feet) and a crowd submitting itself to weekly abandon.
Over the years I watched as a new economy sprouted around this gleaming palace of pleasure. I’ve been in the club business for more than three decades, so to me this wasn’t news.
If you want to revive an abandoned, unloved or semiconscious area in your town or city, open a nightclub. It’s more effective than a Doctor Who regeneration. If you walk around Fabric now there’s a thriving satellite city of bars, late-night cafés, restaurants and hotels, all feeding on the footfall created by one of the city’s most prestigious clubs.
To read the full story in The Times, please click here (subscription required).
