[scraft]

This doesn't reflect my experience from the UK. In the UK a club to people I know is thought of roughly as:

- Late (22:00 - 03:00 probably been core hours)

- Music/dancing being the primary activity

- A small amount of seating, either VIP tables, or some small area or bit near the dance floor

- Alcohol (and perhaps drugs) being consumed quite liberally

- A lot of the clientele looking for a short term partner

The dress side of it just varies, there are places with little to no dress code, places that require shirt and shoes and others inbetween, but I wouldn't specifically say the dress code leads to fundamentally different places, except, the more relaxed dress code typically means more relaxed, diverse people, where as fancy dress code can be a bit more mainstream/think-they-are-something-special.

Places you sit down at tables and drink are typically pubs or bars. These days the two are pretty similar, at a push the more traditional feeling places are more likely to being pubs.

When I was younger I went to the above type establishments not just in the UK but in pretty much every country in the EU and something I found in lots of the EU is something I call "europop" nightclubs, which is a bit harder to explain, but it is venues which are really laid back, everyone just wants to have fun (no aggressive behaviour, male dominance/competition) and plays a whole host of music that has never come to the UK, but everyone over there knows. All of my best club experiences have been these type of places - it's where a 30 year old rock influenced person can be dancing away next to a mainstream 18 year old student and they can chat without barriers.

I do see an increasing amount of younger people that don't really drink and fuel their social interactions from Tinder and other social media, so I have wondered a few times if clubs will fade further out over the years.

[antihero]

That just seems like a shitty meat market club that idiots and teenagers go to.

There are indeed a lot of them, but the second type in parent comment do indeed exist and are gems. Places like Corsica Studios, Printworks (though this is a huge venue), Chip Shop, Fabric, E1 (to some extent). Volks in Brighton. A LOT of them have closed down for bullshit reasons though (licensing, police being dicks, property developers squeezing rent, dickheads moving in next door and complaining about noise). A real shame. People absolutely do get drunk though.

The first type do exist too, especially in the west end, Chelsea etc.

[robochat]

One difference between the UK and Europe is that the clubs get started even later in Europe like 00:00 - 06:00. They seem to get later as you go further south so maybe it's something to do with waiting for the heat of the day to fade (?). As I get older, this makes going out to a club less enticing (oh, maybe that's the point!)

[tweetle_beetle]

Larger venues in the UK often open at 22:00, I think traditionally this was to overlap with the pub licensing, which forced pubs to close at 23:00, but I could be wrong. They typically close at 04:00 or 06:00.

However, there have always been after hours parties, usually in smaller, more niche venues. The first license enabling a legal after hours night was granted in 1990 [1] and originally used to run two promotions in a single night - kicking everyone out at 03:00ish and starting again.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turnmills

[Bayart]

Brits have incredibly early eating and drinking habits, even for people living at the same latitude.

[clubsinuk]

There’s plenty of clubs in the U.K. that do these hours. I’ve come out of clubs in London at 7, 8 even 9 in the morning.

There’s clubs in London that don’t even start till 1am.

[rjsw]

I would guess that UK clubs have suffered ever since pubs were allowed to open later, when last orders in the pub was at 10:30 a club was the obvious place to go afterwards.

[ChrisRR]

From the UK, I'd agree. Drinks before you go out, either at home with friends or at a pub, head to the club 21:00-22:00 ish

Drink and dance, there's a few tables about, but it's mostly standing space and a dance floor. Kicking out is like 01:00ish

Maybe I'm oblivious, but I'm fairly sure our clubs are way more alcohol than drugs.

[hollowcelery]

Where in the UK are you? In London the type 2 clubs (Fabric, Village Underground, Oval Space, Pickle Factory, Corsica Studios, The Cause, Egg, E1, etc.) only open their doors around 23:00, and it'd be weird to show up before midnight - the place would be deserted. Peak time is 1:30-3:30am. At some of these places, almost everyone is on drugs.

[antihero]

It sounds like you are going to shite clubs!

[watwut]

In the dancing clubs here, the actual dancing floor fills at like 1:00. But, I stopped going there years ago precisely for that reason - I would much prefer the British way you describe. Dancing from 21:00-22:00 ish makes so much more sense then having to wait till it is super late.

[clubsinuk]

This is probably because you aren’t going to the type 2 clubs that OP refers to.

Go to any of the following and see if you enjoy it:

London * egg, village underground, fabric, ministry of sound, union, e1, studio 338, Bristol * motion Birmingham * rainbow venues Manchester * hidden, warehouse project Newcastle * digital