Brixton club Electric Social recently announced that they are closing. The “small independent” company posted a statement on their Facebook page telling fans that they will be hosting their last club night at the end of the month.
The decision was made at the start of February by managers to lease the 40 Acre Lane venue to The Columbo Group; a huge company who own other successful London venues XOYO in Shoreditch and The Nest in Dalston. General Manager Tommy Butters said to South London Lines: “Brixton is a very desirable place at the moment and companies will pay upwards and beyond of what you’d expect them to pay for our little venue.”
The team is looking to relocate to South East London and find a venue that is “off the beaten track”. They are confident that they can continue the Electric Social legacy and confirmed that “[The Columbo Group] are not buying the brand, that’s ours.” Tommy said “We’re looking to take the energy we’ve got here and move it to somewhere else. We’ve done it before, no reason why we can’t do it again.”
The manager said: “It’s been an absolute roller-coaster for me in the last month having found out, but these things happen, venues come and go.” And current staff are being supported in finding new jobs. He continued: “There’s a level of nerves whenever you release [statements] like that, but the response we’ve had already has been really good.”
In the four years that Electric Social has been open they have had huge success. The directors who set up the club in 2011 had all grown up in Brixton, however they were seen as; “the people who are making Brixton white”, which Tommy explains “was never our on-set”. He insisted that the club isn’t closing due to lack of business and it was “quite the opposite.”
Electric Social is throwing their goodbye party on the weekend on the 27th March. They hope to have everyone who has ever worked at or helped the company to be there, but said it’s not an exclusive event. Tommy said the closing night will be “as Electric Social has always been, everyone is welcome.”
