And the beat goes on

Events are moving to the sound of a lively beat in the nightclub world. While big corporate players like First Leisure and Rank Group have decided dancing is not for them and have sold off their club portfolios, up and coming ventures such as late night dance venue chain Po Na Na are expanding vigorously. In London, meanwhile, two new superclubs, Fabric and Home have reinjected life into the capital’s night scene.

The nightclub industry is a mature one where competition is tough. A report published by marketing intelligence company Mintel International last autumn predicted that admissions would grow by 5 per cent a year between 1998 and 2002. But it also pointed out that average spend at the UK’s 2000 clubs was falling, a phenomenon it attributed to competition from themed music bars and pubs with late licences.

Growing pressure from rival destinations means the importance of designing nightclubs which are welcoming rather than threatening has never been greater. Just as modern casino design, with its emphasis on light and space, has done much to clean up the image of the gambling environment, nightclub design is distancing itself from the dark, dingy stereotype of the past. Combining light decor and well lit spaces with minimalist design, Luminar Leisure’s Liquid nightclub concept is a good example of a lighter, brighter generation of nightclubs.

Luminar Leisure is confident that Liquid will continue to pull in the crowds, but even if the popularity of late night bars were to grow at the expense of nightclub admissions, the firm has little to fear. Luminar owns two late night bar/restaurant concepts in addition to its three club brands, and is increasingly offering customers a choice of dancing or late night drinking under the same roof. Initial plans for the 20 night clubs and seven bars Luminar acquired from Allied Leisure this November, for example, are for four of the Allied sites to feature both a Liquid nightclub and a Chicago Rock Café American-themed bar/restaurant.

Design groups which have collaborated with Luminar in its rapid expansion include DWA Design and Broadbent Associates, which has created Chicago Rock Café interiors, and Tibbatts Associates, whose Luminar projects have included the interior of a Zoots nightclub.

Chorion is another fast growing company casting its net wide and catering for eating, drinking and dancing requirements under the same roof. Chorion has decided the formula it launched in London’s Haymarket last November with the opening of Tiger Tiger is a winner. Targeted at over-25s, an age group which Chorion felt was poorly provided for, the venue features a variety of bars, a restaurant, a delicatessen and a basement nightclub. Tiger Tiger, with interior design by Tibbatts Associates, is open from mid-morning until the small hours.

“We think this is the way the nightclub industry is going, in that it is evolving into a hybrid of a club and a bar,” Chorion operations director Robert Cohen explains. When developing the idea, says Cohen, Chorion had the success of female-friendly bar brands such as All Bar One, Pitcher & Piano, and Slug and Lettuce in mind. The Tiger Bar at Tiger Tiger, for example, with its airy ambience and liberal use of blonde wood, is reminiscent of the All Bar One style.

In October this year Chorion opened The Loop off Hanover Square, also in London’s West End, with design again by Tibbatts. Although because of its proximity to the original Tiger Tiger, the venue has a different name, the concept is essentially the same. After the launch of a third venue in London early next year, Chorion plans to move outside London, with Tiger Tiger opening in Leeds, Manchester, Birmingham and Portsmouth in late 2000/early 2001.

Another factor driving Chorion when evolving its chameleon Tiger Tiger product was the rise of late night lounge bars, both in their more sophisticated guises, such as Teatro and The Met Bar, and in the form of Po Na Na Trading’s student-targeted chain. As well as a dance floor, Po Na Na’s 28 North African-themed late night bars feature softly lit seating areas where people can play backgammon or chat until 3am. Chorion’s creative director, Robert Sawyer, who designs the venues, is working on openings at a further seven locations by the spring.

As Sawyer points out, the design of late night bar environments is not without its challenges. Licensing regulations require that all bars open after 11pm are environments where drinking is an ancillary activity to other forms of entertainment. In effect, this means the provision of a restaurant offering or a dance space is obligatory, even if, as is the case with Po Na Na, drinking and chatting are intended to be the major focus. Sawyer gets round this problem by keeping lighting on the dance floor unobtrusive and containing the space through the careful placement of speakers.

The rise of late night bars and chameleon concepts has not escaped the attention of another big player in the market, Northern Leisure. The company mentioned the phenomenon in its annual report this August and said it may consider exploiting it. But these are busy times for the operator, which added to its 74 properties in October with the acquisition of 37 nightclubs and nine themed bars from Rank.

The Northern Leisure deal was followed only weeks later by an announcement from First Leisure about the future of its nightclubs and bars business, which it put on the market earlier this year. The 65 nightclubs and bars went to Whizalpa, a management buyout vehicle. The new company, which is to retain the First Leisure name, has already set its sights on expansion in at least 20 locations. Two groups designing interiors for a number of First Leisure’s current projects are Blueprint and Pontefract-based Esquisse.

A consideration never far from operators’ minds as they look to expand is licensing law reforms. A White Paper on the subject is due out early next year and one of the main issues under appraisal is closing time. At Chorion, Cohen is convinced the diversity of its offering means it will be able to hold its own if pubs are open later. Meanwhile, in Northern Leisure’s latest annual report, chief executive Adam Mills suggests pubs staying open may even boost nightclub admissions, as more people stay out later.

Club design and layout could be affected by a proposal from the British Entertainment and Discotheque Association, the trade body for late night bars and nightclubs. It is advocating the abolition of the requirement that drinking be ancillary to dancing or eating after 11pm. “Society has moved on. If people want to have a quiet drink in a bar instead of having to listen to music or watch dancing put on purely to satisfy licensing requirements, we can see the logic in that,” says BEDA executive director Jon Collins.

Whatever the outcome, pressures on parliamentary time mean it is unlikely legislation will be passed during this Parliament. More imminent however, is the processing of a deregulation order to legalise Sunday dancing. Collins estimates it should be legal by next summer. It seems appropriate that a sector striving to move to the frenetic beat of modern times should at last be freed from a law introduced during the reign of Mad King George III in 1780.

Click on the links below for examples:

{storyLink (“DW199912100056″,”Fabric”)} by Forward Architecture

{storyLink (“DW199912100057″,”The Loop”)} by Tibbatts Associates

{storyLink (“DW199912100058″,”Liquid”)} by Bulldog Design