London’s The End to close, no sign of new beginning

London’s The End to close, no sign of new beginning

2 September, 2008 | 9.14AM

• Written by: Terry Church
• Filed under: Music News: canvas, the cross, the key

Leading underground club The End in central London will close on January 24th 2009 after 13 years of clubbing madness.

The closure of The End at 18 West Central Street brings the final tally of important electronic music clubs to have closed in London in the last 12 months to five.

The End joins Turnmills, The Cross, Canvas and The Key on the list of doomed dance music clubs that have disappeared in a cloud of development dust this year.

In December 2007, The Cross, Canvas and The Key got smashed to smithereens to make way for the Channel Tunnel Rail link.

Then in March, Turnmills nightclub in Faringdon made way for some real-estate developers who turned the building into a bland office space.

So what the hell is going on with London’s club scene?

In the case of The End, the closure of the club comes down to money and timing - “We’ve got to the point where some of the key people are ready to move on,” said The End’s part owner Layo Paskin in an interview.

After 13 years of running the club, The End’s executive team looking to move on happened to coincide with an offer from a developer for the space.

No doubt, it was a pretty tidy sum considering The End’s central London location, just near Tottenham Court Road.

“It’s still not an easy decision, I’m going through a lot of different emotions,” continued Layo.

“On the one level I want to do other things with my life, and it’s a good moment to start embarking on that – you can stay in something too long. But the loss will be huge on another level – it’s my life.”

The loss for London’s club scene will be equally as devastating.

As yet, no new dance venues have stepped in to rescue London’s club scene from obscurity in 2009.

Fabric’s new venture Matter in the 02 Arena might look good on paper, but its owners are not committed enough to electronic music and the club has already missed some key club events that could have cemented its reputation as a dance bastion.

Bar Rumba near Piccadilly Circus is touting itself as a potential savior for London’s underground electronic music scene, but the club is far from the glorious, crisp dancing space of The End or The Cross.

It would be easy to make a play on words with the closing of The End - no doubt some of our fellow electronic music news outlets already have - but Beatportal is more concerned about the lack of a new direction for London’s club scene, rather than announcing yet another club closure.

The End will close, but where is the new beginning for London?

Where are the opportunists, DJs and committed electronic music fans that for years have created a world-class club community?

They’re in Berlin, most likely.

Here’s the original announcement from The End and AKA

The End & AKA would like to announce that the club will be closing those legendary metal doors for good in January 2009. After thirteen years of innovation and inspiration, we invite everyone to celebrate the end of The End.

The End & AKA will of course be closing in style, giving the venues the send off they deserve, and the chance for the different DJs and nights to say goodbye. We will be open as normal through autumn, with September, October and November’s parties rocking as usual. The farewell begins with The End’s 13th birthday on December 6th, with long-time favourite Sven Vath headlining. There will follow a series of closing parties featuring The End’s closest DJs and promoters, and then a grand closing weekend on January 23rd and 24th. Regarding the final parties, Layo says “You know us, and you know what we do. We’re speaking to all the key people and we’re not going to go out on anything other than the most massive bang.”

Naturally, it being clubland, everyone will want to know why we’re closing. Are there problems? Is everyone leaving fantastically rich? What’s happening? The reality is simple. We began in a kitchen with a conversation and a dream. The club has been our life for thirteen fantastic years, but key people in the team were ready to move on, this coincided with being made an offer on the building, and we felt it time to pursue different roads. To be able to walk away now after such a journey means that the timing is right. It’s been a dificult decision, and of course we’re sad, but The End is, and has been, the most amazing experience, and we want to thank all those who made it possible and all those who have shared in our dream.

There are too many fond memories, legendary nights, key players and tall tales to go into detail in one short press release. Plus there’s three whole months of cracking line-ups before we can get excited about the closing parties. So the final words, for now, come from Time Out London: “The whole End / AKA formula has been so widely copied that it is impossible to imagine what London would be like without it.” Well, sadly, from January 24th, you’ll have to.

Read the full, rather depressing interview with Layo and Zoe Paskin here.

• (9) Comments
• (5426) Views