London Winter Rave Season 2026/27

Whether you’re a proper house head or you’ve just dipped a toe in the rave scene this summer, here’s a good overview of the new clubs, top nights, and latest residencies to check out this coming winter. You’ll also find a few tips for new degenerates at the bottom of this guide.

We've been sending out our weekly events newsletter since April 2025 to help Londoners find better raves. Following lots of conversations during this time, here are the biggest challenges people face. It’s hard to:

Soon, we’ll be launching the next evolution of our newsletter, the Lab.Club app, to help solve many of these issues. Sign up for early access here.

Depending on who you ask, London is either going through the golden age of clubs or it’s on the verge of collapse. And that, my friends, is the juxtaposition of London nightlife!

We were unfortunate to lose one of London's premier underground clubs, Corsica Studios, this year. But luckily, in its place, there are some great new venues to sink your teeth into…

Touted as one of the hottest new clubs in London, Palais opened in February 2026 on the main Rye Lane junction. This restored former department store opened in 1867. Much later, it was transformed into the "Peckham Palais Nightclub", which closed its doors in 2011. 

Palais is based across two floors: there’s a cocktail lounge that’s open to all, and there's a 500-cap basement club.

I checked this place out a few weeks ago for some raw original dubstep with Kode9 and Introspekt. The standout for me was the sound system – thumping, perfectly tuned bass that could probably go head to head with fabric.

No phones is the default, with a sticker going straight over your camera as you enter.

Gaffe is a club with a backstory. Having been founded in Wandsworth in early 2025, and following several battles with the local council over licensing, they have found a new home in Tottenham.

Gaffe is described as "a new home for the heads", with its young founder Luca Marchal championing a DIY and grassroots ethos.

It's a 400-capacity club with a Funktion-One sound system, and from what I've heard, it has a super cool, respectful crowd. A rarity in today's world. 

Opening in June 2026, Coven is a queer cultural space where music, art, nightlife, and community collide. It sits on the former home of G-A-Y in Soho.

Coven is attempting to do something that has been talked about a lot, but we've not seen in practice: a proper "third space" for members of their community – not just a club, but so much more.

Founded by Matthew Jacobs Morgan in June 2025, Coven began in Hackney and quickly grew into a home for queer artists, performers, musicians, DJs, and communities.

Coven spans 2,400 square feet and has a standing capacity of 300. There is plenty of info on their website, so check it out!

Radial is a nightclub that is fresh off the press, having opened only a month ago in September.

If sound quality is a non-negotiable for you, then you might have found a new home.

Founded by Rob Burn, who also runs Ten87 Studios (a network of recording studios), Radial has centred the entire experience on sound – why would you centre it on anything else?

Radial is a 250-capacity nightclub and boasts a Martin Audio/Funktion-One 10-point system, supported by the sound engineer who designed legendary club Plastic People. 

If you're a fan of some of the bigger warehouse spaces London has to offer, then you're in luck. This 7,000-capacity warehouse has a similar vibe to Drumsheds, with a long, wide dancefloor and impressive production to match.

Ironworks is only a temporary space, and featured Eric Prydz as its first night, with CamelPhat and Charlotte de Witte coming up soon. 

A disclaimer for those who would rather spend money at independent venues: Ironworks is promoted by AMAAD, a well-known London-based promoter who founded Junction 2. But in recent years, it has been acquired by CTS Eventim, the second-largest event promoter behind Live Nation.

Club Empire will be taking over the historic Empire Tavern every weekend from 7 November. 

This new, late-night club concept, which will run on Fridays and Saturdays between 10PM and 2AM, promises speakeasy vibes, top quality underground dance music, and extended DJ sets throughout the night. 

An affordable late-night spot with the local community at its heart. 

DJ residencies used to be a core part of the nightlife circuit in London, providing talented selectors with a platform to showcase their craft. Unfortunately, these have dwindled in recent years, with clubs opting for one-off larger shows instead.

XOYO, for example, hosted Dusky back in 2020 with their quarterly residency series, as well as the likes of The Blessed Madonna, Skream, Bicep, Scuba, Bradley Zero, and Ben UFO.

In 2026, in line with their rebrand, they opted for more generic house/techno nights resembling the next evolution of Popworld, rather than paying homage to what came before.

Luckily, by definition, resident DJs have to be top tier, and these do not disappoint with Phonox continuing to fly the flag…

7-28 November

One of my favourite producer duos growing up, and criminally underrated given the number of dancefloor weapons they have released recently.

Dusky have mastered the art of multi-genre production, spanning house, deep house, tech house, and even some UK garage (UKG) and bass.

6-27 November

TV show DJ, not to be confused with DJ Seinfeld, is back at Phonox with "Friends".

Much like DJ Seinfeld, Ross from Friends blends lo-fi house and melodic house, creating a unique, ethereal, bass-driven, epic sound which sometimes sounds like Overmono and Bicep had babies!

4-26 December

Denis Sulta is one of those rare breeds of DJ that have been vanishing in recent years – the type of DJ who lights up a dancefloor with weird and wonderful music, without the performative dancing. Just pure vibes.

Denis Sulta is probably known for his 2015 track "It's Only Real", but his DJ sets blend house, underground techno, disco, and classic rave euphoria tracks.

Not every good night out needs a 6AM finish. Whether you're nursing a comedown, stretching your budget until payday, or you just want to hear great music without a strobe in your face, here's what I'd be doing in between raves this winter…

The listening bar crew behind Spiritland is opening a 100-capacity space on level two of the Barbican, overlooking the lakeside fountains, from 20 October. A full album gets played at 5PM every day, with talks, tastings, and supper clubs on top, all through a custom Living Voice sound system.

Running until the end of July 2027, there's no rush, and in my opinion, it's the most civilised way to spend a Sunday afternoon in London.

If Spiritland is the new kid, Brilliant Corners is the one everyone else gets compared to. Corner-to-corner Klipsch hi-fi speakers in an acoustically treated room, a bespoke valve mixer, and the same team behind the GIANT STEPS parties and mu.

Book a table, order some food, and let someone else pick the records for once.

Lie on the floor under a huge LED ceiling while Ryoji Ikeda’s data-cosm [n°1] blasts particle physics and astrophysics data at you as sound and light. 

It’s back by popular demand until 20 December at 180 Studios. In the same building, Devon Turnbull’s OJAS Listening Room has a hand-built hi-fi with a wall of brutalist speakers, so you can recover from the visual overload properly.

Sweat it out… but with a soundtrack. Sauna Social Club in Peckham runs ambient listening sessions on Friday and Saturday evenings – we listed ANNX and Jezebelle there last month – and Community Sauna Baths have run DJ-led sessions across their sites.

Book ahead, and maybe don't go straight from the afters.

Some of the best free parties in London happen between the record racks. Phonica in Soho regularly hosts free, BYOB in-stores (we listed Gene On Earth there in March), and Planet Wax runs a free Sunday Service with live sets.

Dig for an hour, stay for the set, and you'll still have money left for the weekend (unless you find something on the wall you can't live without).

The phone-free cinema-club from the team behind Secret Cinema is coming back in November as a "24-hour district". No phones, no line-up, and at the time of writing, no confirmed location either (Time Out).

If you went first time round to the old Odeon on Shaftesbury Avenue, you'll know the deal. If not, this is the one to sign up for now.

fabric has been curating events at The View from The Shard, with dates confirmed for 5 November and 27 December.

Is it going to replace a Saturday in Room One? Of course not. But it still sounds like an impressive experience.

Robert Henke, aka Monolake and one of the minds behind Ableton Live, is bringing First Light to the Barbican Hall on Saturday 7 November. 

It’s a brand-new audiovisual show commissioned by the Barbican, combining lasers and surround sound, and the first chance to see it anywhere. 

It’s seated rather than a rave, but if you’ve ever wanted to see the people who built the tools behind half the music you dance to really push them to the limit, this is the one.

Some of the best line-ups we listed this year were fundraisers – for Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan, trans rights, and to keep Algha's Plantroom (a women-run queer venue) open.

Same DJs, same sound systems. But your ticket money goes somewhere that matters. We flag them in our events newsletter every week.

Self-plug alert Our Open Decks nights at the Lab.Club space in Shoreditch put you on proper club equipment in front of a real (and very friendly) crowd – the first one sold out in 48 hours.

The only downside? Once you've played on a proper system, your bedroom setup will never sound the same again.

Next dates will be confirmed soon, so sign up to our newsletter for more updates! 

And finally, as promised, a few things I wish someone had told me when I started raving in London (and a few I've learnt the hard way in my 30s)…

It's safe to say that London's clubbing scene is in a strange place right now. Superclubs are getting bigger, institutions like Corsica are closing, and some of the best new rooms are holding just a few hundred people. But is London nightlife dying? Far from it – you just need to know where to look.

That's exactly why we've built the Lab.Club app. Sign up for early access, and let us know what we've missed – we read every reply.

Our mission at Lab.Club is to serve the growing electronic dance community in London. Got some news to share with us? An event? A DJ? A set we should listen to? Feedback on this email?

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