Kingsland Road is one of the most vibrant destinations in London, perhaps the only point in the capital where club kids, LGBT culture, and the Turkish mafia can intersect, and speak freely. It's bold, colourful, trashy, and free – and it's also under threat.
The news that ever on-point club venue Dance Tunnel is set to close in August took many by surprise on its announcement yesterday (April 11th). A buoyant destination – queues regularly stretched around the block – it matched a carefully detailed booking policy with a rare commitment to sound. In a statement on social media, Dance Tunnel confirmed that it couldn't gain the necessary opening hours required to make the club “sustainable in the long term”. It seems to have fallen victim to what it labels the “licensing climate” within Hackney council, following a series of updates the local government body made to the legislative process last year.
Dan Beaumont, owner of Dance Tunnel and nearby Dalston Superstore, was against the legislation from the start, telling RA even before it was implemented: "It is a shame that a vibrant and creative London borough has to suffer a regressive and damaging licensing policy. Clubs are a vital part of Hackney's success story over the last few decades—if this policy goes ahead we will all be poorer for it. It is vital to encourage new start-ups to launch independent venues to keep Hackney—and London—an important cultural destination."
The very fact that the club has attracted such an outpouring of sympathy underlines its value. It's only 12 months on from the closure of Plastic People, and small club spaces are at a premium in London. Everyone from Four Tet to Disclosure, Katy B to Ben UFO, Skream to Plastician have saluted the work done in that Dalston basement, a signal that Dance Tunnel's worth can't solely be judged by monetary value.
– – –
– – –
Hackney council's decision is rooted in a one-size-fits-all policy that simply doesn't understand club culture, or the benefits it can bring to the wider East London economy. Clubs keep a small staff out of necessity, swelling on big nights as security and bar staff are added. But they're also a multiplier – how many people when coming to Dalston will check out Birthdays, Bardens, or the Haggerston, before heading down to Dance Tunnel? It's a hugely important part of Kingsland Road's magnetic pull, helping to increase footfall and keep people walking (and spending) along the streets of E8.
But above and beyond this all, clubs are a visible signifier of culture. Dance Tunnel has a reputation for booking imaginative and left of centre line ups, featuring artists that might not otherwise gain a foothold on London's dance map. DJs and producers from East London are able to showcase close to home – simply put, if you're a grime artist from Newham or Leyton then Kingsland Road is about as close to the ends as it's going to get.
Clubs attract teams of people, many of whom will work part time, or simply volunteer. From those working the door, the cloakroom, to the bar, right down to those who plaster line up posters in the doorways of cab companies, it's a huge family. It's one where particular skill-sets are nourished and encouraged – graphic designers can step away from strictly commercial projects for just one second, and focus on websites, posters, and other projects.
All this makes the life of a club particularly precarious. It's worth noting that Dance Tunnel wasn't directly forced to shut by this decision, but because of the knock-on economic effect. The club didn't tend to fill up until after midnight, meaning that a late license was a necessity to maximise bar takings. Remove this license, and the venue slips through the cracks. It's exactly this reason that forced Glasgow's vital, much-loved night hub the Arches to shut its doors last year leaving an enormous cultural impact on the city.
It's something that happens time and time again, particularly as East London gentrifies. Rates and rents go up, meaning that promoters and club owners struggle to find a way to maximise income. Nearby venue Power Lunches – a hub for punk, and left field indie – closed last year, not because it couldn't find an audience willing to come to its events but because the costs involved were simply far too high to make that particular type of venue feasible.
These factors are hitting promoters working in vastly different areas. Around 100 LGBT bars across London have closed in the past 15 years, with iconic East London names such as the Joiners Arms shutting up shop for the last time. It's a sad and all too familiar tale – at times, it feels as though London is being subsumed into some dank, tasteless soup, a beige mono-culture in which only safe ideas, ones that immediately provide a return on investment, survive.
The wider ruptures caused by Dance Tunnel's closure are already being felt. Hackney Council promised to “manage things more effectively” in a statement last year, but the question is: for whom? The newly updated policy could well lead to valuable changes in East London night life in the future, but the closure of one of Kingsland Road's most valued small clubs is a worrying, and highly negative, first step that leaves the area with an enormous economic and cultural hole to fill.
– – –
– – –
A petition has been launched to protest against Hackney council's decision – find out more HERE.
