The Electric Ballroom is a performance venue (primarily for rock bands) and indoor market located at 184 Camden High Street in Camden Town, London (postcode NW1 8QP). The Electric Ballroom has been in operation for over seventy years, during which time it has been used in many different ways.
The two-storey building has two dance floors and four bars. The ground floor has a stage and full concert facilities.
As of 2009 on weekends the building has an indoor market with about fifty stalls selling a variety of fashion-, lifestyle- and music-related goods. The Friday club night is Sin City, playing rock, and alternative genres with occasional stage performances. The Friday club was formerly goth night Full Tilt. On Saturday, "Shake" plays mostly pop and dance from the 1970s, 1980s onwards, as well as modern hip hop and R'n'B. The Electric Ballroom was a roller disco for a brief period from the late 1970s to the early 1980s.
Transport for London proposed to demolish the Electric Ballroom in order to allow the redevelopment of the Camden Town tube station, but the planning application for the redevelopment was rejected by Camden London Borough Council in 2004. A revised proposal from Transport for London in 2005 to demolish the whole block including the Ballroom, Buck Street Market and the Dr Martens store was rejected by Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott. In 2007 the government declared the Electric Ballroom a dilapidated building, a new argument which allows planning for the extension of the Camden Town tube station to be restarted. A public consultation ended on 22 February 2007. Details, the adoption statement and the adopted planning brief for the Camden Town Underground Station site are on the Camden Council website.
Famous quotes containing the word electric:
“Flabby, bald, lobotomized,
he drifted in a sheepish calm,
where no agonizing reappraisal
jarred his concentration of the electric chair—
hanging like an oasis in his air
of lost connections. . . .”
—Robert Lowell (1917–1977)