Electric Ballroom: history, club nights, door times and the nearest pint

Electric Ballroom, 184 Camden High Street, NW1 8QP. Capacity 1,500. Gig doors are usually 18:00, 18:30 or 19:00, club nights run to 03:00, and the ticket decides everything. Camden Town tube is about as close as a venue can get to a station without being in it.

Door times, and what to check

The venue’s own FAQ gives gig doors as 18:00 or 18:30 with a curfew of 22:00 or 22:30, and 19:00 with a 23:00 curfew on some nights. So there is no single answer: read your ticket. Set times are not announced in advance, so if you want the support act, be in early. If you only want the headliner, you have a bit of slack, but not a promise.

For what is on, the venue’s FAQ is the place for rules, and its website lists forthcoming events.

The rules worth knowing before you queue

• Gigs are 14+. Under-14s are not admitted. 14 and 15-year-olds need an adult aged 18 or over. At 16 and over you do not need an adult, but you may be asked for ID.
• Club nights are strictly 18+, with physical photo ID: a passport or driving licence.
• Bags: rucksacks, luggage and cabin bags are banned, as are folding chairs. Only one small bag is allowed, so check the FAQ for the size. Security searches happen on entry and exit. Travel light and you will be through faster.
• Accessibility: the venue is non-seated. Email admin@electricballroom.co.uk (monitored 10:00 to 18:00, Monday to Thursday) and send proof of any medical condition or disability before the show. The accessibility page has the detail.

The room

It is a two-storey building with two dance floors and four bars, and the ground floor has a stage and full concert facilities. Fever says there is a full bar and food service. The building is also described as housing an indoor market of about fifty stalls, but that comes from a user-edited wiki, so do not plan your day around it.

The club nights

LOOP, Saturdays, 23:00 to 03:00. A weekly night of party anthems, house, R&B and throwbacks, according to the venue’s LOOP page. Friday and Saturday club nights generally run from 22:30 or 23:00 until 03:00.

Sin City is the rock, metal and alternative night, which the venue says has run since 2004. Wikipedia says it replaced the earlier goth night Full Tilt. Check the listings before you head over, as the pages we have are older and so are the prices.

A short history

In 1938 Bill Fuller took over the site and opened it as The Buffalo Club, a small place with its main entrance on Kentish Town Road. In 1941 Camden Town tube station was bombed, and the back of the Buffalo and the side street beside it, Dewsbury Terrace, were blown away. Fuller bought the whole site and rebuilt it as a ballroom holding 2,000 people, a social centre for many Irish immigrants, according to the venue’s history page.

It became the Electric Ballroom in summer 1978, and was briefly a roller disco from the late 1970s into the early 1980s. Fuller owned it until his death in 2008, aged 91, according to Wikipedia. The venue’s own list of past acts includes The Clash, Joy Division, The Smiths, U2, Prince, Blur and Supergrass.

Getting there

• Camden Town is the nearest tube.
• Mornington Crescent and Chalk Farm are the alternatives.
• Camden Road is the nearest Overground station.

The nearest pint

The World’s End, 174 Camden High Street. A few doors from the Ballroom on the same street. CAMRA describes a sprawling two-bar pub opposite the tube, with a food servery, dining room and balcony bar. Fever says it is known for pizza, so that is your pre-gig dinner sorted.

The Camden Eye, 2 Kentish Town Road, NW1 9NX. A one-room triangular pub that CAMRA lists serving Fuller’s London Pride on handpump, with food, live music and Wi-Fi. Fever mentions burgers and cocktails. It sits on the road that was once the Ballroom’s front door, which is a tidy bit of symmetry.

We have no current pint prices, so bring a card and expect Camden rates.