CLUBBED To Death - The Beginning of The End

the beginning of The End

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Andreea Iliescu

clubbed_ to death --why the former nightclub at 18 West Central Street, Soho was iconic--

Andreea Iliescu | 245953 History and Theory Studies

Tutor Elena Palacios Carral

Keywords: memory, sonic resistance, night fever, electronic music, oral histories.

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‘Typology’ cluster

“If there’s one thing to learn from rave, it’s this: you can do anything, if you do HTS Typology

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it together.”

[1] Sweet Harmony – Rave | Today x Saatchi exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2019.

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– Sheryl Garratt, Sweet Harmony – Rave Today[1]

Contents List of Figures

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Abstract Introduction Section1

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industrial buildings by the day, clubs at night-time

Section 2

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Duality and Transgression:

A question of policy:

subverting power structures Section 3

Nothing ever lasts forever: A cycle of gentrification

Bibliography Fig.1 The End: An Oral History, RA.

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Conclusion

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Fig.1 Cover photograph, The End Soundsystem, Resident Advisor, < https://ra.co/clubs/465>, [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig. 2 The End - An oral History, Resident Advisor, RA, < https://ra.co/clubs/465>. [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.3 The End of The End, Wikipedia, <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_(club)> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.4. Interpretative drawing, author’s own.

Fig.5 Collection of social media testimonies of people who were involved with The End, assembled together by author.

Fig.6. The End - An Oral History, Resident Advisor, RA, < https://ra.co/clubs/465>. [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.7. The former building of The End, DJ Mag, This is The End: The Club that changed London, < https://djmag.com/longreads/end-club-changed-london> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.8. Planning Application Drawing, Planning Portal, < http://camdocs.camden.gov.uk/HPRMWebDrawer/Record/3674829/file/document?inline> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.9. Detroit: Ruin Porn, Wikipedia, < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.10. Film still, Jeremy Deller, Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992, documentary film, < https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Thr8PUAQuag&t=547s> [accessed 15h April 2022].

Fig.11. The Miners’ Strike. 1984, Wikipedia, < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_miners%27_strike_(1984%E2%80%9385)> [accessed 15h April 2022].

Fig.12. Andy C at The End, Gavid Wallace Photography, < https://www.gavinwallacephotography.co.uk/product/the-end-club-london/> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.13. The End soundsystem, DJ Mag, <This is The End: The Club that changed London, < https://djmag.com/longreads/end-club-changed-london> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.14. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 becomes law, The Guardian, < https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/jun/15/criminal-justice-public-orderact> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.15. The Criminal Justice Bill, RedBubble, < https://www.redbubble.com/es/i/poster/m%C3%A1s-notablemente-en-la-restricci%C3%B3n-y-reducci%C3%B3n-de-losderechos-existentes-de-phigment-art/45035864.LVTDI> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.16. The End interior views, DJ Mag, <This is The End: The Club that changed London, < https://djmag.com/longreads/end-club-changed-london> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.17. Evening Standard, ‘Crime generator’ nightclub loses licence, < https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/crime-generator-nightclub-loses-licence-6443624.html> [accessed 15h April 2022].

Fig. 18. The End entrance, TRASH, Facebook page, < https://www.facebook.com/trashclublondon/>, [accessed 15h April 2022].

Fig.19. The End interior views, DJ Mag, <This is The End: The Club that changed London, < https://djmag.com/longreads/end-club-changed-london> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.20. The Hacienda, Wikipedia, < https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ha%C3%A7ienda > [accessed 15h April 2022].

Fig.21. The End front door, DJ Mag, <This is The End: The Club that changed London, < https://djmag.com/longreads/end-club-changed-london> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.22. Mr.C and Layo DJing at The End, DJ Mag, <This is The End: The Club that changed London, < https://djmag.com/longreads/end-club-changed-london> [accessed 15th April 2022].

Fig.23. The Hacienda: How Not to Run a Club, Peter Hook cover photo, < https://smeikalbooks.co.uk/products/hacienda-how-not-to-run-a-club?variant=3267 9052902485&currency=GBP&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrSSBhC9ARIsANhzu16QB0Qrx6Bn_O5IZ3EoZi-U6EFLdKf723_I-hsRkw-iOKwwFTBq4kQaAsKdEALw_wcB> [accessed 15h April 2022].

Fig.24. Queue at The End, closing night, 2009, sketch by unknown author, DJ Mag, <This is The End: The Club that changed London, < https://djmag.com/longreads/endclub-changed-london> [accessed 15th April 2022].

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List of Figures

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Fig.2 The End of The End: a pile of rubbish at 18 West Central Street

However, despite its popularity, there isn’t sufficient documentation on The End besides oral histories, photographs and adverts, for its opening was a question of policy before the owners managed to obtain an entertainment license; therefore, this case study will be used as a lens to discuss how rave

Writing will be used as a methodology in the preservation, exploration and conclusion of this paper, considering that it allows the club to extend its life as an open building through the text and within the description. Ultimately, writing will be used as a conclusion, whereby as a process it will allow for a speculative outlook on the future of the site, informed by its history and inspired by its loss.

[2] Katie Thomas, This is The End, the club that changed London, DJ MAG, https://djmag.com/longreads/end-clubchanged-london [accessed 13th April 2022].

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Formerly located at 18 West Central Street, a five minutes’ walk away from Tottenham Court Road station in Central London, The End used to go late and strong during the night in the 90s. Originally a joint collaboration between Richard West (Mr. C) and Layo Paskin (from Layo and Bushwacka!), the club opened its steel-brushed doors in December 1995 and it was responsible for the establishment of the record label End Recordings. Throughout its nearly fourteen year long history, it was regarded as one of London’s most popular mid-sized venues for electronic music of all genres before its eventual closure in 2009. Douglas Paskin, an architect and lover of music is the person responsible for the design of the venue that changed clubbing in London forever due to its innovative features for the time.[2]

culture in the UK came into being and why The End became iconic for DJs and ravegoers alike in the context of the time.

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This essay is an exploration into the cultural significance of The End nightclub and its affiliated AKA bar, one of the most popular electronic music venues in London in the 1990s.

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Abstract

Fig.3. Interpretative drawing, author’s own: The End entrance - a threshold between two planes of reality, between daytime and night-time

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Fig.4. Oral histories collected from social media, author’s own.

In effect, I am interested in pointing out how the nightclub as an architectural programme is temporal, ephemeral and eventually condemned to obsolescence – not only do clubs come and go with the trends of the zeitgeist [3], but also, they only host durational, temporary events; just for a few hours in a night, the club allows people to subvert power structures in order for both the collective and the individual to release their inhibitions and let go of societal pressure.

What is more, it is important to note that the architectural typology of the nightclub serves no obvious purpose during the day; usually, club staff start their shift in the late afternoon, preparing to deliver an unforgettable experience for the raving community. Thus, the club comes to life solely at night-time, leaving its mark on the attendees that, under the influence of light, sound and psychotropic technologies [4], will have a night to remember.

Or on the contrary – one to forget?

[3] * The general intellectual, moral, and cultural climate of an era (the spirit of the age).

[4] Pol Esteve Castello, Night Club, Scenes de Nuit, <https://scenesdenuit.ch/scenes/nightclub> [accessed 13th April 2022].

[5] A Gesamtkunstwerk is a work of art that makes use of all or many art forms or strives to do so. The term is a German loanword accepted in English as a term in aesthetics.

[6] Mateo Kries and Catharine Rossi, Night Fever: Designing Club Culture: 1960-Today, p.9.

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Looking back at all the things I have been deprived of during the COVID-19 pandemic, a memorable night out and a good soundsystem were some of the ones I missed the most. Sweaty bodies in space, dancing to the beat close to one another in dark and dingy industrial club spaces, feeling the bass pumping up my blood - I wanted all those things back and more. Now that we are back to some kind of normality, I am interested to reflect upon the impact that pioneering clubs such as The End have had on the present-day nightlife in London.

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Historically, nightclubs and discotheques have developed into hotbeds of popular culture. As centres of the avant-garde since the 1960s, they have been focal points for questioning social norms and experimenting with alternative levels of reality through innovative design features. Many nightclubs developed into a Gesamtkustwerk [5] , blending interior and furniture design, art and graphics, music and lighting, fashion and performance into a holistic experience. Following the evolution of the pioneering Italian nightclubs representing the Italodisco movement to Berlin’s Berghain and OMA’s proposal for the new Ministry of Sound in London, it becomes clear that the club as a typology shaped and prefigured an open understanding of design that is prevalent today beyond the nightclub scene: that design must not restrict itself to the production of everyday objects, but can also contribute to shaping up the experience in which people immerse themselves as a collective in a continuum of sound, light and movement. Such experiences were often carefully planned and designed, drawing on a combination of disciplines – from a club’s interior furnishings to music, lighting design, fashion and the graphics of flyers and posters. Thus, clubs have earned a place among the great cultural achievements of the past decades, ultimately gaining the statusquo of institutions of liberation for people who did not want to conform to the pre-established order of society. [6]

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Introduction

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[9] The End – An Oral History, Resident Advisor, https://ra.co/features/1004 [accessed 5th April 2022].

In the late ’80s and early 90s, licencing laws meant that venues in London closed early, and pumped up ravers had a lot of gas left in the tank. If one wanted to carry on dancing through the night, one had to turn to the illegal warehouse parties or the after-hours, unlicensed clubs like the legendary RIP on Clink Street,” wrote Simon Reynolds in ‘ENERGY FLASH: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture’.[7]

In late 1995, posters began to pop up across London that read: “The End is coming.” A club built for clubbers, by clubbers, since its owners, pioneers of the underground rave community, knew what the crowd wanted to experience.

As such, The End was conceived as an alternative to the superclubs that dotted the dance culture landscape in the ‘90s, for the founders did something that nowadays seems obvious in retrospect: they put the clubber - and the music first. At the time, it was a revolutionary concept, although now it might seem outdated; all great ideas work this way.[9]

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Richard West, under his stage name Mr. C, was a pioneer of acid house in London and one of the key figures behind many of the city’s illegal warehouse parties. He co-owned The End with Douglas Paskin, nowadays owner and Senior Partner of PKS Architects. Across London, and the United Kingdom as a whole, illegal raves grew increasingly large loose. By the early ’90s, the authorities realised that in order to interfere with the unlicensed underground scene, they would need to start granting all-night dancing and alcohol licenses to city venues. In this new era, the superclub was born.[8] [7] Simon Reynolds, ENERGY FLASH: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture, p.58.

[8] Katie Thomas, This is The End, the club that changed London, DJ MAG, https://djmag.com/ longreads/end-club-changed-london [accessed 13th April 2022].

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Our protagonist The End was no exception to that, since it was built with a smooth and safe experience in mind - cutting edge music and cutting edge design. Nonetheless, the ravers from the 90s remember it for more than purely for its design; The End was pioneering in providing an experience. In order to understand this in more detail, we need to go back in time to the 1980s.

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Fig.5. The End: An Oral History, RA.

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time it’s made in.”

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“You cannot separate music from the

[1] Sweet Harmony – Rave | Today x Saatchi exhibition, Saatchi Gallery, London, 2019.

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– Jeremy Deller, Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain, 1984-1992.

[Section 1]

Duality and Transgression: industrial buildings by the day, clubs at night-time

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How did the industrial typology of factories, warehouses and power plants lead to the programme of ‘the club’ to occur in the first place? What was historically so particular about these types of buildings that allowed their transformation into nightclubs?

In order to answer these questions, we need to go back to where it all started.

[10] The End – An Oral History, Resident Advisor, https://ra.co/features/1004 [accessed 5th April 2022].

Fig.6. The original building of The End.

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Since I moved to the city of London, I have been fascinated by how former power plants, factories and warehouses have assumed a new function — the club-

diametrically opposed to their original industrial use: dissipating excess energy through affective and physical work without obvious utility, such as dancing, the chemically accelerated depletion of dopamine and serotonin stocks as a result of the intake of psychotropics, and nonreproductive sex. Nowadays, we live in an energetic surplus so far beyond our requirement for survival and reproduction that the vast majority of human activity is devoted to pursuits that fall under the categories of ritual and ceremony: the seemingly irrational sacrifice of time and resources for no obvious gain other than leisure.[11]

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In 1985, Layo Paskin was throwing unlicensed warehouse parties in London; he had worked several jobs in the music industry before realizing that he could not continue to go for six months without getting paid. His dad Douglas was an architect, so Layo told him that he was looking for a space that could potentially be refurbished into a club. As a result, his father found a space whose owner thought might make a good nightclub. Layo was 22 and had no money, but was excited about the idea, so he contacted Mr C and suggested that they should team up and start the business. [10] The following question arises - why is it that industrial buildings attract this type of programme to emerge?

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The building of The End was originally a postal distribution hub, during a time where mail was transported underground by horse-drawn carts.

Despite the dripping walls and the rusty water leaks, the founders saw a lot of potential in the building, due to its location in Central London, as well as the arcade shaping up the basement space.

[11] Martti Kalliala, Club Ruins, Flash Art, < https:// flash---art.com/article/martti-kalliala-club-ruins/> [accessed 15th January 2022].

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Fig. 7 Planning application document, Planning Portal

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A tale of three cities The story of how electronic music emerged as a worldwide movement is a tale of three cities, specifically Detroit, Chicago and New York, with their corresponding techno, house and garage genres. Detroit, in particular, is the place where techno music was born in the 1980s – a city hit hard by the fall of the automobile industry. In a landscape of abandoned buildings and vacant houses, the techno aesthetic took shape, drawing inspiration from the promised hope of innovation, the technologies of the future and the utopias of science fiction.[12] As a result of unemployment of the working class, techno appeared as a form of resistance against industrial collapse, with gatherings hosted in the sanctuary of former power plants and warehouses.

In effect, the industrial workers who had been laid-off from their jobs were taking over the means of production and making something for themselves [13] – this time, transforming their former workplace into a space of leisure and hedonism through machine-made sounds and dance.

Fig.7. Detroit: Ruin Porn, Machine Soul City.

[14] Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash: A Journery through Rave Music and Dance Culture, p. 12.

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[12] From Kraftwerk to Chemical Brothers, Design Museum Exhibition, London, December 2020.

[13]* Karl Marx, Theory of Alienation – it describes the estrangement of people from aspects of their human nature as a consequence of living in a society of stratified social classies. It concerns the industrial worker’s separation from what he or she is producing.

“It is the emptiness in the city that puts the wholeness in the music. It’s like a blind person can smell and touch and can sense things that a person with eyes would never notice. And I tend to think a lot of us here in Detroit have been blind: blinded by what was happening around us. And we sort of took those other senses and enhanced them, and that’s how the music developed.”

- Derrick May [14]

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Having gained momentum and popularity, the music travelled from the USA to Europe – particularly to the UK, where it was defined as a cultural movement.

In 1989 Britain, at the height of Thatcherism, the country was more polarized than ever. Margaret Thatcher was about to celebrate ten years of political power and the country was intoxicated on promises of economic mobility and a growing middle class. In London, the wealthy were celebrating lavishly their financial success – for it was the era of the individual. As corporate and financial power began to assert itself, workers unions were smashed. Thatcher’s embrace of rapid neoliberalism impoverished large sections of the UK, creating a permanent underclass through strict austerity and the gutting of industries, especially in England. As a result, when the music travelled to the UK, it did not rise to prominence directly in London, but in the industrial cities in the North of England, most notably Manchester.[15]

Fig.8. Film Still, Jeremy Deller ‘Everybody in the place’ documentary film.

[15] Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash: A Journery through Rave Music and Dance Culture, p. 35.

[16] Ibid.

[17] Ibid.

[18] Jeremy Deller, Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain, 1984-1992’, 2018.

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Despite the political apathy and despair that gripped the country, the cultural soil was right for a new wave to emerge – one fuelled by a deep ecstatic need for freedom and deep macrosocial and transpersonal experience – the phenomenon of ‘rave’ was born. It did not emerge as a response against the status-quo, but rather, it rose organically as a reaction to the political zeitgeist a culture adjacent to the mainstream, born as an antidote to the alienation and despair that people were feeling.[16]

Nevertheless, after the fall of Thatcherism, authorities started to grant club owners entertainment licenses, since their intention was to interfere with unlicensed raves; this led to the club typology to emerge as a safe haven, where people could be whoever they wanted to be (this time, under legal parametres) . Very much similar to a church, where people support one another and share common values, the nightclub as a typology informally achieved the status of an institution – a place that was validating underrepresented communities (most notably, subcultures, queer and people of colour), thus giving them agency on a social level. As Jeremy Deller brilliantly points out in his documentary “Everybody in the Place: An Incomplete History of Britain 1984-1992”, the emergence of electronic music and the popularization of the nightclub in the 80s and 90s was, in effect, like the beginning of a new religion.[18]

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Raves were spontaneous events which occurred in public spaces such as abandoned and derelict power plants and warehouses or outdoors in the fields and forests. There was no real corporate structure operating behind the scenes.

Hence, raves demonstrated the human capability to cooperate and used nonvertical power structures and mutual aid in order to pull off complex operations, such as setting up events without authorities finding out about them.[17]

From the USA to Europe

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Fig. 9 The 1984-85 Miners’ strike: The decades-old feud that still divides communities

[Section 2]

A question of policy:

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subverting power structures

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Fig. 10 Andy C playing at The End, Gavin Walllace archive

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The main motivation why the Act was put in place was to curb the circuit of illegal and free parties, which were steadily growing in the 1990s. The law classified a ‘rave’ as “a gathering on land or in the open air of 20 or more people, whether or not trespassers, at which amplified music is played,” where music “is characterized by the emission of a succession of repetitive beats.”[20] Mr.C. and Layo, as some of the most popular organisers of unlicensed warehouse parties, were trying to stay away from legal trouble, so they teamed up to get an entertainment license for The End to come into being. But what have our club owners learned from underground rave culture? Let us turn to it for a moment and analyze the hierarchy of powers at play there.

[19] Nav Haq, Rave and its influence on arts and culture, p.74.

[20] Ibid.

Fig. 12 The End soundsystem, DJ Mag.

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Fig. 11 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act, 1994, acid house rave poster

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The End was pioneering among nightlife venues in London because it was the first club to obtain a twentyfour hour entertainment license, particularly around a time when there were legal regimes in place that were incriminating rave culture. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 is such an example; also known as the Anti-Rave Law, it introduced a number of legal changes, most notably in the restriction and reduction of existing rights, clamping down on unlicensed rave parties, and greater penalties for certain “anti-social” behaviours. The Bill was introduced by Michael Howard, Home Secretary of Prime Minister John Major’s Conservative government, and attracted widespread opposition.[19]

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Fig. 13 Kill the Bill protest, 1994.

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What is more, bodies can, of course, be coded in a variety of ways, and the image of the raving body suggests a second level of transgressiveness. The body is a key site of social control and therefore among the most disciplined sites within any social structure. However, during raves, social control seems to be dismantled; the temporary erasure of individuality furnished by trance, is the loss of self control, and therefore, the pleasure of the body out of control.[25]

[21] Brian L. Ott, Mixed Messages: Resistance and Reappropriation in Rave Culture, p.250.

[22] Brewster, B., & Broughton, F. (2000). Last night a dj saved my life: the history of the disc jockey. New York: Grove Press.

[23] DJ Lynnee Denise, Sonic Refusal, International Lecture Series RCA, April 2021

[24] Brian L. Ott., p.255.

[25] Stallybrass, P., & White, A. (1986). The politics and poetics of transgression. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.

[26] Reynolds, Energy flash, p.47.

Ultimately, having spoken about psychotropic technologies, it is crucial not to undermine the role that ecstasy (MDMA) plays in rave culture. Other than being “the love drug”[26], working in perfect harmony with the repetitive beat of the music to induce empathy and a state of ecstasy, what is perhaps the most unique characteristic the drug has with underground rave culture is its desexualizing effect on the male body.

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Thus, the festive moment of a rave celebrates liberation from preestablished order and marks the temporary suspension of hierarchy, norms and privileges. [22] I would argue that this turns the nightlife venue, whether or not licensed, into a space of important political activity, since it allows for a democratic opportunity where people are in control of the powers at play.

But what is the freedom happening at an underground rave and how exactly does the sound become a part of that? DJ Lynnee Denise talks about the importance of “moving together”; she argues that tracks that have a particular beat to them that encourage ways of collective movement.[23]

Thus, music - as an embodied experience - acts directly upon and is literally felt by the body. The mere centrality of the body in rave culture is itself transgressive. Binary concepts such as mind/body always entail hierarchy, and throughout much of Western philosophy and religion, the body has been coded as untamed, impure and subordinated to the intellectual and spiritual activities of the mind and soul.

Thus, rave culture inverts this hierarchy and celebrates Dionysian principles (emotional and ecstatic) over Apollonian ones (reasoned and structured). [24]

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Underground raves are not scheduled to last for a specified amount of time; rather, they continue until police arrives and ownership of the place is re-established. The co-opting of space and temporary liberation of it from the social structure is central to the transgressive character of both historic, as well as contemporary rave culture. Given the obvious legal issues raised by breaking into buildings or taking over fields, the location of underground raves is kept secret until a few hours before the party. The secrecy surrounding the location also serves to heighten a sense of community by uniting the crowd in specialized knowledge and transforming the quest for the location into a ritualistic pilgrimage – hence why the community at The End got to know one another way before the opening of the venue.[21]

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said Ty Vigrass, the bartender. He gave free alcohol to all attendees that first night; in hindsight, he admits that offering free drinks was a mistake. The floor was polished oak, and they used glass to serve alcohol. They did not know any better, but by the end of the night all of the glass had been trod into the polished floor. Layo’s dad, Douglas, the architect of the space, had his head in his hands after that first night.

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“…it was just the most amazing feeling. But at the end of the night, I can’t ever remember feeling more awful.”

- Ty Vigrass [29]

If rave culture truly flattens hierarchy, promoting communion, then it must somehow disrupt the entire disciplinary apparatus of ‘sexuality’ that serves heteronormative and patriarchal social relationships. [27] Though MDMA intensifies the pleasure of touching and hugging, it largely empties sexual intimacy of its aggressive, masculine content. In addition to having an antilibidinal effect on its users, MDMA helps efface gendered sexual relations. Since Ecstasy enhances feelings of collective love rather than targeted lust, the majority of users do not discriminate by sex, gender, or sexuality in their intimacy with others. In contrast to commercial club culture, which privileges consumption, sexual conquest, and being an audience, underground rave culture privileges communion, the ecstasy of jouissance[28] , and oneness between the crowd and the music - if only for a night.

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Thus, the

The End opening

family remembers night fondly:

[27] J. Fiske, Understanding popular culture. p.72.

[29] The End – An Oral History, Resident Advisor, https://ra.co/features/1004 [accessed 5th April 2022].

[28] Brian L. Ott, p.238.

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Having experienced underground rave culture both as attendees and organisers, Mr. C and Layo knew clearly what they wanted to achieve when opening The End– a safe space for the pioneering rave community that had previously formed during their unlicensed warehouse events, that would go against the commercialized, capitalist business model which was dominating London nightlife at the time.

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Fig. 14. The End interior views, DJ Mag archive.

“He made something very, very special,” says Mr. C of Douglas Paskin’s work, “he realised our dreams.” [30] Innovative features that ravers on a budget could fill up their bottle (a move previously unheard of — at the time, venues were known to turn off the water in the bathroom so ravegoers would purchase it at the bar), and the dancefloor was sprung with hydraulics to alleviate the strain on dancers’ legs. Everyone who has ever been on a night out has drunk water from a bathroom sink at one time or another – however, it was The End that simply legitimized this practice.[31] At the back of the main room, the aptlynamed Speed Bar served only beer and water to minimise queuing at the other bars, and the walls, archways, and DJ booth were built with a soft curvature — nothing sharp to interrupt the flow of the sound. Clubbers would enter through a pair of shining metal doors, before descending the glowing stairs to the basement, the bass thumping behind the doors at the bottom. “Every time you go down those stairs, you’ve already got the biggest grin on your face,” says Mr. C.[32]

[30] The End – An Oral History, Resident Advisor, https://ra.co/features/1004 [accessed 5th April 2022].

[31] Katie Thomas, This is The End, the club that changed London, DJ MAG, https://djmag.com/ longreads/end-club-changed-london [accessed 13th April 2022].

[32] Ibid.

[33] Ibid.

[34] Ibid.

As difficult as it may have been to find visual material, the soundsystem affiliated to the space is featured in almost every image. Self-imposing and majestically placed at the centre of many photographs, masterfully framed by the basement arcade, the speakers at The End were considered to be the best soundsystem one could find in London. Former attendees would say: “You may have heard tracks like Layo & Bushwacka!’s “Love Story,” but it’s hard to say that you’ve truly heard them until you’ve sampled them on the speakers at The End. “Sterling sound for a sterling club.[34]

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The water fountain at The End meant

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Nonetheless, the most particular feature of The End was the placement of the DJ booth island in the middle of the space so that the crowd would be dancing around it. We can infer that this is a nonhierarchical relationship, as opposed to clubs that are popular in the mainstream, where the DJ is seen as a mastermind - placed on a pedestal, higher up than the crowd. In a world where worshiping the on-high DJ is commonplace, The End changed all that - by placing the DJ at the centre, the club made each night intimate and personal, promoting a sense of communion, where the crowd and the DJ became one. [33] One could argue that Mr C. and Layo brought this feature in from their experience running unlicensed events before co-owning The End – after all, it is underground rave culture that promotes the privileging of communion, particularly between the DJ and the crowd.

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[31] Katie Thomas, This is The End, the club that changed London, DJ MAG, https://djmag.com/ longreads/end-club-changedlondon [accessed 13th April 2022].

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Finally, let’s not forget about the AKA bar next door – although underrated throughout the club’s history, it was the perfect pre- and post-night venue for clubbers that needed a break from the hedonistic confines of The End. Light, airy and essential to the experience.[34]

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Fig. 15. The End/ AKA street view

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Nothing ever lasts forever:

Fig. 16. 18 West Central Street after its closure.

[35] Jerome Taylor, The Last Dance: The End opens its doors for final time to host party to end all parties, The Guardian, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/ uk/this-britain/the-last-dance-the-end-opens-its-doorsfor-final-time-to-host-party-to-end-all-parties-1452288. html [accessed 14th April 2022].

“I started doing this when I was 22 and now that I’m 38 I think it’s time to move on,” he says. “There are a whole host of brilliantly creative young people out there and it’s their turn to try something new. For a club to stay open for as long as we have is unusual but I think closing is healthy for the scene.

Nightclubs shouldn’t last forever, they’re not theatres.” – Layo Paskin [35]

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The End… it sounds so final. The name of the venue itself somehow predicted its closure. As many clubs decided to close down in 2009 due to the recession of the previous year, so did the owners of The End announce that this may have just been it. The club closed its doors permanently on 24th January 2009.

Was it poor business management, transitioning from underground to mainstream until things escaped out of control or simply that the owners and founders needed a break? The reason is unknown, as its founders deliberately chose not to go into much detail about the closure of Central London’s finest.

Layo, however, freely admitted that Britain’s clubbing scene was in need for a new direction – and that was part of the reason behind his decision.

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A cycle of gentrification

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Before the closing night, DJs, friends and family of The End gathered in a Resident Advisor interview to talk about the significance of the closure of the club. People like Johnno Burgess, former promoter, thinks The End would be hard to top because their relationship with the staff became very close – aspect rare to find in a club in London.

“In clubbing circles The End was seen as something of an institution, a proper super club. It was the kind of place where you knew you were guaranteed to see some really big names play some amazing sets. It definitely feels like an end of an era moment.” [36]

[36] Jerome Taylor, The Last Dance: The End opens its doors for final time to host party to end all parties, The Guardian, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/ uk/this-britain/the-last-dance-the-end-opens-its-doorsfor-final-time-to-host-party-to-end-all-parties-1452288. html [accessed 14th April 2022].

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Ty Vigrass agrees, and he believes the club attracted some of the best people to work with – hence, he chose to stay from the beginning of The End until its closure – not because he wanted to make a career out of being a bartender, but because of the great friendships that he had made and the enjoyment of going to work every night. It is in the nature of clubs to come and go, but it is difficult to imagine a similar location in Central London to open as a nightclub and make as much history.

Fig. 17. The End before its opening night, 1995.

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Reopening as The Den

I cannot help but draw an analogy between The End and the Hacienda, in Manchester – a case study perhaps more documented and well-researched.

From its unique design and wellregarded story of rising to prominence in the Madchester years, the Hacienda is a great example of the rise and fall of a nightclub where gangs, drugs, greed and a hostile police force decimated a dream. In his book “The Hacienda: How not to run a club”, Peter Hook, the former owner of the place, tells the story of the venue that made the acid house movement popular in the UK - an incredible time and place that would change the face and sound of modern music before falling apart and being turned into an expensive apartment building at Whitworth Street West.[38]

[37] Katie Thomas, This is The End, the club that changed London, DJ MAG, https://djmag.com/ longreads/end-club-changed-london [accessed 13th April 2022].

[38] Peter Hook, The Hacienda: How Not to Run A Club, cover page.

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Due to a slump in the property market, the property developers of 18 West Central Street decided against turning The End into a block of flats, instead collaborating with some club promoters (John Alist) to open the venue up again in May 2009 as The Den. However, it subsequently closed in July 2012 when its license was revoked by a magistrates court following a series of complaints and reports of shootings, stabbings and drug dealing.[37]

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Thus, there seems to be a recurring motif for a club to open in an underused industrial area and rise in popularity only for this to lead to its closure as a result of the cycle of gentrification. As architectural typologies, clubs make unpopular areas marketable, since they attract a certain demographic – usually, wealthy people. Thus, industries such as real estate and development thrive on having post-industrial buildings empty, since there is no need to make a significant investment if the building already exists. After all, one just needs high quality publicity work and, as the venue grows in popularity, the land value will increase, too. Ultimately, this cycle of gentrification is what leads to eviction and the disappearance of the spirit of the place itself; hence why the programme of the club is predestined to become obsolete – particularly in big cities like London.

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Fig. 18 The Hacienda, Manchester

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a new function, which implies that there is no need to make a significant investment if these buildings are already in place.

When the club becomes popular, the land value increases as well - aspect that eventually leads to eviction and the closure of the club itself.

Why The End?

Where is today’s London nightlife heading towards, as nightclubs keep on coming and going, disappearing with gentrification and urban renewal cycles? Will we return to illegal and unlicensed rave culture to satisfy our need for Dyonisian pleasure as opposed to conforming to the mainstream nightclub model that rules the scene nowadays?

There was something about the mystery surrounding this place that fascinated me to want to know more about it. Firstly, because it has been tremendously difficult to get in touch with anyone who visited the space; secondly, because there is not much documentation left of it. The few photographs I managed to find, depicted in black and white, illustrate a dramatic scenery – a crowd moving collectively to hardcore beats in the venue which hosted some of the best nights of the decade.

Although there is a ‘retromania’[40] emerging – the tendency to be addicted to our own past, as we live in an epoch of commemoration and nostalgia for times that are long gone, I would argue that there is a lot that we can learn from 80s and 90s rave culture – and The End has been a great example in showing us that anything is possible,

Also, it is important to note that nightclubs are inherently linked to the cycle of gentrification, since they make underused industrial areas marketable.

Having former industrial spaces empty as a result of deindustrialization is beneficial for real estate and developers; thus, the spaces assume

as long as you do it together.

[39] Tess Reidy, I Sleep Where You Danced: What Happens to Nightclubs after they Close Down?, Vice, https://www.vice.com/en/article/nn9an8/thepeople-who-sleep-in-the-places-you-used-to-party-in [accessed 15th April 2022].

[40] Simon Reynolds, RETROMANIA: Pop Culture’s Addiction to its own past, Cover page.

Fig. 19 Front door at The End, DJ Mag archive.

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As we have seen, the club is a symbol of communion, liberation and, as a result, it is historically linked to political activity due to the fact that it allows crowds of ravers to subvert hierarchical power structures for a few hours in a night – aspect that derives from UKs years of political unrest under Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

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The sun has set on the golden age of British clubbing. Nowadays, the building lies empty or occupied by guardians, people who live in properties for a cheaper rent to prevent squatters moving in. [39]

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Conclusion:

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Fig. 20 Mr. C and Layo, co-owners and friends DJing at The End.

Bibliography

Fig. 21 Peter Hook: The Hacienda, book cover.

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Brewster, Bill, CLUBBED: A Visual History of UK Club Culture (London: Face37; First Edition, 2018).

Eshun, Kodwo, More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures In Sonic Fiction (London: Quartet Books, 1998).

Haq, Nav, RAVE and its Influence on Art and Culture (London: Black Dog Publishing Ltd., 2016).

Hook, Peter, THE HACIENDA: How Not To Run a Club, (UK: Simon & Schuster Ltd., 2009).

Henriques, Julian, Sonic Bodies (London: Continuum Books, 2011).

Jones, LeRoi, Black Music (Macgibbon & Kee, 1831).

Kries, Matteo, Eisenbrand, Jochen, Rossi, Catharine and Serulus, Nina, Night Fever: Designing Club Culture - 1960-Today (Vitra Design Museum, 1st edition (2018).

LaBelle, Brandon, Acoustic Territories: Sound Culture and Everyday Life (Continuum, 2010).

LaBelle, Brandon, Sonic Agency: Sound and Emergent Forms of Resistance (London: Goldsmiths Press, 2018).

Reynolds, Simon, Energy Flash: A Journey through Rave Music and Dance Culture (London: Faber&Faber, 2013).

Reynolds, Simon, Retromania: Pop Culture’s Addiction to its Own Past (London: Faber&Faber, 2011).

Singh Brar, Dhanveer, Teklife/ Ghettoville/ Eski – The Sonic Ecologies of Black Music in the Early 21st Century (London: Goldsmiths University Press, 2020).

Scoates, Christopher, and Wright, Will, Brian Eno: Visual Music (London: Chronicle Books LLC).

White, Joy, Terraformed: Young Black Lives in the Inner City (London: Repeater Books, 2020).

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PRINT

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Esteve Castello, Pol, Night Club, Scenes de Nuit, <https://scenesdenuit.ch/ scenes/nightclub> [accessed 11th April 2022].

Hubzin, Ivica, Return of The End Soundsystem, DJ Mag, < https://djmag.com/ node/4405> [accessed 13th March 2022].

Kalliala, Martti, Club Ruins, Flash Art, < https://flash---art.com/article/marttikalliala-club-ruins/> [accessed 13th March 2022].

Reidy, Tess, I Sleep Where You Danced: What Happens to Nightclubs after They Close Down?, Vice, < https://www.vice.com/en/article/nn9an8/the-people-whosleep-in-the-places-you-used-to-party-in> [accessed 13th March 2022].

Thomas, Katie, This is The End, the Club that Changed London, < https://djmag. com/longreads/end-club-changed-london> [accessed 13th March 2022].

Taylor, Jerome, The Last Dance: The End opens its doors for final time to host party to end all parties, The Guardian, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/ this-britain/the-last-dance-the-end-opens-its-doors-for-final-time-to-host-partyto-end-all-parties-1452288.html [accessed 14th April 2022].

FILMOGRAPHY Black to Techno, dir. Jenn Nkiru (2019).

Everybody in the Place, dir. Jeremy Deller (2018).

Fiorucci Made me Hardcore, dir. Mark Leckey (1999).

Jungle Fever, BBC2 Documentary (1994).

Mikrohaus… “Mikrohaus, or the black atlantic?” Video, dir. Toney Cokes (2006 -2008).

Sisters with Transistors, dir. Lisa Rovner, (2020).

The Last Angel of History, dir. John Akomfrah (1996).

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NON-PRINT

All that is Solid Melts Into Air, Manchester Art Gallery, 2014.

Electronic: From Kraftwerk to the Chemical Brothers, Design Museum, 2019.

ICA: Current Transmissions, Institute of Contemporary Art, 2019.

ICA: Nine Nights, Channel B, Institute of Contemporary Art, 2021.

Night Fever: Designing Club Culture, V&A Dundee, 2021.

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EXHIBITIONS

One in the Other: DeForrest Brown, Jr./ Speaker Music, Camden Art Centre, London, 10th October, 2021.

The Otolith Group: Hydra Decapita, Tate Britain, London, 1st September 2021, 31st October 2021.

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LECTURES AND CONFERENCES RCA International Lecture Series, Sonic Refusal, DJ Lynnee Denise & Luke de Noronha, April 2021.

Assembling Black Counterculture: Techno at the End of the Future EP:1 London, Camden Art Audio <https://podcasts.apple.com/us/ podcast/assembling-a-black-counter-culture-techno-at-the/ id1513931064?i=1000536982118> [accessed 30th December, 2021].

Radio Alhara, Sonic Space, Beyond Palestine w/ Elias and Yousef Anastas, Failed Architecture <https://open.spotify.com/ episode/2C4vLXEWg9CLYtBcUoNCRs?si=682345f867b74cd2> [accessed 30th December, 2021].

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PODCASTS

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Vision of Sound: Episode 1 – Jeremy Deller’s Vision of Sound, Georgina Cook, <https://open.spotify.com/ episode/62zJKofpF0Yt2NmFqnFpeP?si=503d2916f2704dbe> [accessed 30th December, 2021].

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Fig. 22. The End - sketch of queue in front of entrance, unknown author.