At the beginning of the month, leading London Bridge nightclub Cable was – quite literally – forced out of business. Landlords Network Rail seized control of the property in dramatic fashion, as documented in the video below.
Although wrangling about the repossession (for an emergency staircase to be installed from the mainline station above) had been taking place behind the scenes for some time, the news still came as a shock to all involved with one of London’s leading music-focused nightlife venues.
Clubbing in the capital has been suffering hugely from development works in recent years, as documented in the widely shared story over on our sister site Kentishtowner: Top 5 Lost London Nightclubs.
Cable was seen as the great hope – an exciting new venue rising from the ashes of these former titans. Managing Director, Ryan Ashmore, came from The End, single-minded in creating a space worthy of filling the vacuum left by that club’s demise. And that’s what Cable did, hosting many of the same innovative promoters, DJs and record labels, plus nurturing plenty of new ones too.
We spoke to Ryan to find out a little more about the closure, which looked fairly aggressive from the photos and later video posted on social media.
“We have been trying for two years to work with Network Rail on finding an alternative solution to save Cable or at the very least find us suitable premises to relocate to,” he told us. “They either ignored us or told us flatly they are not prepared to provide us with any alternatives.”
This is all despite earlier assurances that the venue would not be redeveloped, leading to the team investing heavily in their subterranean arched home in recent years.
“Cable had been in planning for a long time before the club actually opened,” continues Ryan. “Finding a location that suits the requirements and stipulations of all the various authorities while making a great and safe party space does not come easy. Cable was unique in that it offered undercover queuing, an undercover smoking area, superb layout with configuration for bars and no sound leakage. Places like that cannot be found overnight, especially ones with the transportation links and central location Cable had. The space was incredibly flexible, housing our Cable TV studio and enabling us to stage events such as stand-up comedy, corporate parties, video shoots, live music shows and live web broadcasts. It was the perfect space for us to build the Cable brand.”
With little room for negotiation, the events of May 1st saw the popular club and that carefully built brand suddenly homeless, with the loss of 70 jobs. The way things unfolded all looked a little nasty too.
“Despite us showing no resistance and advising Network Rail we could let them in, they decided the best course of action was to cut through our metal shutter,” says an incredulous Ryan. “Earlier that day we had explained to them power had been cut to our front shutters but we could allow them access if this was reinstated. Mysteriously, we have CCTV footage of someone cutting the power to these in the middle of the night before, but I guess when you’ve hired a huge angle grinder for the day you want to get your money’s worth!”
Bittersweet joking aside, is there any hope of a reprieve? All Ryan will say on the matter is “It is unlikely people that turn up with angle grinders and battering rams will have a change of heart – we are fighting them legally.”
In the meantime an appeal for the best photos, videos and memories of the club to be submitted has gone out. Make sure you send yours to memories@cable-london.com
While the Cable team lick their wounds and the legal battle continues, it looks like yet another of London’s prized nightclubs, the places where people quite genuinely have the best time of their lives, is to be cruelly side-lined by the blunt forces of economic development.
As we’ve said before, perhaps clubs shouldn’t exist forever, but remain all about the energy of their given time. Yet with so few proper venues left in this city, it’s surely many years too early to have to be thinking about another blue plaque for a cherished but bulldozed dancefloor, this time at Cable.
Words: Tom Kihl
