Nightclubs are the capital's creative heartbeat-we can't let them go extinct

I'm returning to music with a mission: to save London's nightlife. I still remember it like it was last weekend. It was around 2011, in a sweaty Cargo in Shoreditch. I was watching a crowd go crazy to a DJ set that cost less than a round of shots. No guest list. No section. Just pure energy.

- TINIE TEMPAH

I'd already had a No 1 by then, but in that room, with no phones in the air, just bodies in motion — I felt alive. That's what London nights used to give you. The feeling of community. But in 2025, that type of night is becoming a rarity in the capital.

After taking a break from music to focus on being a father, I've had time to watch the industry from the sidelines. As a dad to young kids, I've started thinking more about their generation. I've seen how different things are for them, with fewer spaces to move, to meet, to just be young. The freedom I had just isn’t guaranteed for them.

Data from the Night Time Industries Association shows that between 2010 and 2023, the number of nightclubs in the UK fell by more than a third. In London alone, more than 3,000 clubs, pubs and bars have closed since the pandemic. At this rate, by 31 December, 2029, there won't be a single UK nightclub left.

If we don’t act now, there is a very real prospect that we lose all these spaces where young people come together to create and express themselves.

Sure, London hasn‘t gone fully silent. You can still find a decent night out in places like Dalston or Peckham if you know where to look, but let’s not pretend the scene hasn't completely changed. Iconic venues have disappeared. Youth centres have vanished. Promoters have been squeezed by costs, residents by noise complaints and young artists by a lack of places to test their work and, for those with talent, to thrive.