For 13 years The End stood as the epicenter of underground dance music in London. Opening its doors in 1995, it was the home to acid house, house, drum and bass, breakbeat and later on dub step.
The End’s residents included co-owners Mr. C and Layo Paskin along with Bushwacka!, Fatboy Slim during his rise to #1 on the UK charts, Carl Cox, Erol Alken, Andy C, Steve Lawler and Sven Vath. Other guests included Richie Hawtin, Green Velvet, Laurent Garnier, Skream, Timo Maas, Hector Romero, Deep Dish, James Holden and too many others to list.
Every night of the week was a different party at The End. Whether it was Monday, Wednesday, the weekend, or in between, you could find the purest music in London pulsing through the speakers. Those midweek parties, according to Mark Knight, have fallen by the wayside in the UK, leaving many artists jaded by new clubbing philosophies.
A New Year’s party once spilled into the undeveloped space next door, turning more or less into an illegal rave that ran into the next day. The space eventually became legal, opening as The End’s sister bar AKA.
From The End website’s “Share Your Memories” guestbook:
Frank, 4/29/09 “arrived in london about ten years ago very fresh to london , i had heard about the end at home in ireland and to find my self standing in the queue was fairly un nerving i felt like i was totally out of my depth ,but when we got inside it was deadly and very chilled was talking to a guy at the bar before i realised it was sharam from deep dish one of my clubland heroes i really belive the way i felt must have been akin to the young party goers in the cavern in trying to get in to see the beetles . the club is in my opinion just as important to me as now and for the rest of my life as the cavern was and is to is own patrons.”
Ollie, 5/11/10 “I’ll never forget the the may hours i spent raving the night away at the End. This club pioneered and revolutionised the london club sceen especially with MR C at the fore front of it all. Aslong as my brain stays in tact and funtional i will never forget my memories of the End and although it has been laid to rest in the hevens of the dance world it will always be the best club in the world :)”
Morganism, 9/2/08 “What makes The End truly special is that everyone and everything in the place is geared towards producing the best possible sound – the system, the artists, even the shape of the rooms! I remember during James Holden at Border Community noticing that there was a guy with an equalizer or something, twiddling knobs, to ensure that the sound complimented the tunes perfectly. The End is irreplaceable. I’m gutted. Will be going as much as humanly possible until the doors shut. Thank you for providing the best nights in London for so long.”