The London Astoria was a music venue, located at 157 Charing Cross Road, in London, England. It had been leased and run by Festival Republic since 2000. It was closed on 15 January 2009 and has since been demolished. The venue is still seen today as an iconic music establishment, due to launching the careers of many British rock bands and the UK success of many international acts. It was also a famous venue in Britain’s LGBT scene, for holding London’s biggest gay new year parties along with G-A-Y.
Originally a warehouse during the 1920s, the building became a cinema and ballroom. The building was converted for use as a theatre in the 1970s. After further conversion, the building re-opened in the mid-1980s, as a night club and live music venue for well known musical acts. There were half a dozen smaller music and gay clubs in the adjacent buildings of the neighbourhood.
In 2009, despite many protests, being central London’s largest live music club, the venue closed for the last time to make way for development of the Crossrail project.
Closure
The Astoria was sold in June 2006 by Compco Holdings to property group Derwent Valley Central for £23.75m, who were rumoured to be planning to convert the site into a combination of shops, flats and offices to take advantage of an increase in property prices for the 2012 Olympics.
On 13 August 2007, Festival Republic sold most of its venues and the rights to the name Mean Fiddler to the MAMA group, however it retained The Astoria and Mean Fiddler, which reverted to its old name of The Astoria 2, generally known as the LA2 (London Astoria 2). In December 2008, Coheed and Cambria played for four nights, as part of their Neverender, the only venue to feature outside of the USA.
In January 2009 the property was compulsorily purchased to make way for Crossrail, despite public opposition and an online petition. Former London Mayor Ken Livingstone confirmed that the venue “can’t be saved”.
The nightclub G-A-Y left the Astoria in July 2008 and moved to the Heaven nightclub. The Astoria hosted its final night on 14 January 2009, co-organised by Get Cape Wear Cape Fly’s Sam Duckworth in aid of Billy Bragg’s Jail Guitar Doors charity and Love Music Hate Racism. Acts included The Automatic, My Vitriol and ex-Mansun singer Paul Draper, Frank Turner, …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead and The King Blues. London Astoria 2 also had a closing party, headlined by rock band Open The Skies, with support from Outcry Fire, F.A.T.E and Orakai.
By October 2009, the venue had been demolished completely.
A replacement for the Astoria was being developed by the council and leaseholders, depending on Government funding.[citation needed] Festival Republic (the owners of the Astoria) have confirmed that a replacement will be built in the near future.
In 2012, Nimax’s plans to build a new theatre in the Astoria’s site were approved. It is unknown whether the theatre will be used for music as well as dramatic purposes. The former site of the Astoria cannot be built upon until 2017 due to the site being needed for Crossrail.