‘A taste of Ibiza in grotty King’s Cross’: memories of closed UK nightclubs
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As venues continue to shut down, six people remember dancing nonstop, loved-up vibes and sticky carpets. Nightclubs across British towns and cities have been declining steadily over recent years, with 65 closures this year alone. The Covid pandemic has been a big factor as 480 nightclubs shut their doors between June 2020 and June 2024.
![[Hannah McCormack (middle) at Fatsurfer in 2005, with her friends Carly and Charlie.]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/2c3a8e7f08c335541dd777c26d3bcd9800831910/0_0_600_450/master/600.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Here, six people share memories of their favourite clubs in their 90s and 00s heydays. As an Essex teen on the cusp of London in the mid-2000s, our Friday nights were all about the Fatsurfer, an alt night at a working men’s club in Grays. It was an amazing space for local bands. The people who ran it were nicknamed Surfer Steve and Soundman Jim.
![[Key fob with ‘the fatsurfer’ logo]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/baf3fb34462ef606fd41db13d647453f07e91d2f/0_593_1326_860/master/1326.jpg?width=120&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
It was one of the first places that the local bands in my school year played; my boyfriend was in a band called My Own Enemy. I could also get hold of a double spirit and mixer or WKD Blue there. When ID scanning and stricter measures came in, it felt like that was the start of the death of the venue. I’d already moved away to London by the time it closed.
![[Membership card with ‘Tin Tins’ logo and the club address, alongside an illustration of a naked male dancer from behind]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/6c0464c9cb7c2ce820dc7ef1c1dec1e9621f90c7/0_0_320_204/master/320.jpg?width=120&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
Hannah McCormack, 37, Cornwall. The gay club Tin Tins in Birmingham closed in 1997, but I still daydream about it. I was 16 in late 1995 when I first walked through those big wooden doors. The crowd was welcoming, glamorous and bizarre. One of the first things I saw was a man dressed in a black mini dress and one of those fake boob sets, similar to the one Paul Gascoigne wore when he arrived in England after Italia 90. There was a cage filled with drag queens, all beautiful. People had really made an effort. The house music carried on through until 9am. I saw the late, great Tony De Vit play there a few times.
![[Nyika and a friend pose for a picture seated on the bus. The man alongside Nyika is wearing a surgical face mask and doing a ‘devil horns’ hand gesture]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/edf390af8d28dcf31b6d804b56ac6e8ddc7988bd/0_0_604_453/master/604.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
