Electric Brixton

Electric Brixton is a 1,500-capacity live venue in London, occupying a former 1913 picture house beside Brixton Town Hall. Its distinction is scale with theatre bones: a standing concert floor beneath an upper level, an elevated stage and surviving decorative detail revived during its 2011 refurbishment. The result suits touring bills that have outgrown a club yet still benefit from a single-room crowd.

A cinema, a roller disco, and The Fridge

The building opened on 20 March 1913 as the Palladium Picture Playhouse, designed by Gilbert Booth in Edwardian neo-classical and Baroque style. Cinema names changed through Regal, ABC and Ace before the room became a concert venue and roller disco after the cinema closed in March 1981. David Bowie performed on its stage during that brief conversion, a clue to the musical life already gathering around the old auditorium.

The decisive transformation came in 1985, when club founders Andrew Czezowski and Susan Carrington moved The Fridge into the former cinema after crowds outgrew their earlier Brixton premises. The Fridge closed in March 2010; Electric Brixton reopened the building in September 2011 after a £1 million facelift that restored original interior features and recast the room for concerts and large club events.

The room now

Programming combines ticketed live music with large club nights, alongside television recordings, private parties and arts events. Latin, metal, rock, alternative, folk, hip-hop, indie and R&B all appear on its concert slate. Live shows use a standing-only setup across two floors for 1,500 people; club events rise to 1,700. The stage and first-floor vantage points support strong views, while two cloakrooms, bars with snacks and an outdoor smoking courtyard handle the practical side of a long evening.