From dancefloors to tables: socially distanced clubbing, temporary urbanism, and the gentrification of London’s nightlife

Abstract

COVID-19 physical distancing measures have had especially radical impacts on cultures and economies with conviviality at their core. In the UK, the pandemic forced the unpre-cedented closure of a wide range of shared social spaces, with music venues and nightclubs amongst the most prolongedly a ff ected. Many of these spaces remained closed eighteen months after lockdown measures were fi rst announced, with few of them – or their employees – eligible for su ffi cient state support (All Party Parliamentary Group for the Night Time Economy 2021). In this short article, I o ff er some re fl ections on the reinvention strategies London nightclubs were forced to implement during this period, arguing that they constitute an acceleration of longer-term tendencies toward temporary urbanism and the interrelated gentri fi cation of the city ’ s nightlife spaces.