lovelychaos

The second part of my weekend doing the legendary things in London took me to Shunt Lounge on a Saturday night. It’s known for its combination of dark, atmospheric rooms, art, dance, music, and its queue. It’s set in the vaults under London Bridge train station, accessed through a single door opposite the tube ticket barriers inside the station, and from week to week cycles through a variety of creative acts. You can expect a fair few different things on any one night. And yes, including a queue.

It has to be mentioned, because queue for this place is long. It opens at 8pm, by which time a sizeable queue forms. To preserve the feeling of space (and perhaps, exclusivity) the number is tightly controlled. We missed the first intake (had arrived at 8.30) and resigned ourselves to a couple of hours wait. If you go, take a drink with you, and befriend those in the queue with you. Get them to buy you champagne.

Once inside, we found a couple of bands, some gymnasts suspended on hoops from the ceilings, a quite bizarre collection of clockwork mechanical objects, loads of special lighting, and a quite wonderful fake rose garden with incense and a girl dressed as a flower. The best analogy I can think of – it’s like the Glastonbury greenfields. But better. You don’t know what’s around the next corner, but you know it’ll be of some interest. And better than Glasto, there’s no mud, and – surprisingly – fewer luvvies.

The Shunt space is mahoosive and impressive, lots of interconnecting vault rooms, brick walls and ceilings. Some places are perfect for hiding and chilling, some are loud and raucous. We walked, we talked, we sat, we played on the pianos, we danced to salsa, we played retro games. This is certainly the most bizarre and varied night out you could possibly have in London – and forget you’re in London while you do it.

Sadly, I hear Shunt is closing at the end of this Spring season to make way for the Shard development over the station. I can’t find an official word on this so will leave you with mine – make sure you go before it’s gone.