(Image: AndreasS; the torched shell of an abandoned nightclub)
There’s something strangely moving about an abandoned nightclub. Once a venue where people went to forget their troubles and dance the night away, to see them reduced to silent hulks is oddly touching. Maybe it’s the contrast between the imagined happier days and the desolate reality. Maybe it’s the way you can almost picture the thousands of people who must’ve passed through the door. Or simply a sign of the changing times, as the youth of today eschews such venues in favour of alternative ways to unwind. Whatever the reason, there’s something undeniably haunting about places once used for fun that have been left to decay, such as these abandoned nightclubs and derelict discos.
Abandoned Disco Destroyed by Fire, Europe
(Images: AndreasS)
Somewhere in Europe lies the broken remains of this forgotten disco. Once a dance temple that could hold 2,000 people in a pounding orgy of beats and gyrating flesh, it was ravaged by a fire at some point in recent memory and completely gutted. Although no-one was hurt in the incident, the building itself clearly never recovered. Today, it makes a pitiful sight. A blackened cavern, filled with the melted remnants of DJ equipment.
At first glance, the damage is so intense that it looks like a bomb has gone off here. Parts of the ceiling have collapsed, the walls are charred, and everything is in ruins. Apparently not so long ago there was even an area filled with melted keyboards, CD players and vinyl decks within the bowels of the abandoned nightclub, but these were looted and are now missing. There are even half-full bottles of wine still standing where they were placed when the fire broke out, waiting for revellers who will never return.
Abandoned LA’s Nightclub, Hull, UK
(Images: Squirrell 911)
Lexington Avenue (LA’s for short) was once a mainstay of Hull’s clubbing scene. Somewhere between an acceptable venue and a despicable cheesefest, it held a strange sort of place in people’s hearts, loved and reviled in equal measure. Closed in 2005 after relaxed licensing laws hit visitor numbers, it was demolished a few years later and the site of the abandoned nightclub is now set to become a Hilton Hotel.
The above pictures were taken only a year after LA’s shut its doors for the final time. As such, it’s still possible to see traces of the dance club it once was, buried beneath layers of dust and debris. Old posters still hang on the walls, only just starting to peel. Bar stools ring the dance floor, their tops thick with dust. It looks like a particularly grimy Mary Celeste; a place evacuated by panicked clubbers at the drop of a hat for reasons unknown. Now long-since demolished, LA’s today lives on only in the hearts and minds of Hull’s former clubbers.
Starlite Music Theatre in Latham, New York, USA
It was once one of the biggest venues in the United States. A place where guys like Bob Hope and Sammy Davis Jr. played. A place where Diana Ross could wow punters, bathed in magical spotlight. Essentially a gigantic tent where 3,000 people could sit in a circle around a central stage, the now abandoned Starlite Music Theatre once dominated Latham, New York. It hosted greats and not-so-greats, country stars and Las Vegas exports. Abandoned in 1997, it stood empty for 15 years before finally being torn down in late 2012.
During its years out of use, it became almost as famous as an abandoned structure as it had been as a living building. There was something about the shape of the place, about the lighting, that made its ruins beautifully photogenic. The crumbling stalls, circular stage, and faded memories of star power combined to make it a special place for urban explorers. Although the Starlite may now be gone, its legacy lives on in photos like these.
Abandoned KTV and Nightclub Longgang Shenzhen, China
(Images: dcmaster)
Shenzhen is one of the fastest-growing cities in China, a creative hub of seven million people that sprawls along the strip of land north of Hong Kong. Part of the gigantic Pearl River Delta conurbation, it’s a pulsing, glowing, vibrant place of burning neon lights, frenzied activity, and the endless scuttling of millions of souls. In the midst of this sci-fi megalopolis – where 42 million people live in eight conjoined cities – nightclubs are born and disappear in the blink of an eye. The abandoned KTV and nightclub Longgang is one such place.
Clearly once a dizzyingly-inventive club, the KTV is now just so much ruins. Absurd structures and mirrored rooms still survive, but much of it is now buried under rubble or dust. Although these pictures were taken only three short years ago, it seems likely that the remains of this abandoned nightclub have now vanished forever, such is the pace of change in contemporary China. Yet, even as one disco falls, it seems certain another will rise to take its place. With 42 million dazed inhabitants and a growing middle class, the Pearl River Delta is a megacity in need of such places.
Abandoned Majestyk Nightclub in Leeds, UK
(Images: Carl Milner – Milner’s Blog)
The abandoned Majestyk Nightclub you see in these photos has long since gone. In 2014, a major blaze gutted the historic building, turning much of the former nightlife hotspot into ash and carbon. The roof collapsed. The walls were charred. Old furniture went up in smoke. For many Leeds residents, the fire was a tragedy. In one form or another, the Majestyk building had held a place in their hearts since the 1920s.
Originally a grand cinema with an impressive edifice, the Majestyk later metamorphosed into a nightclub that catered to Leeds’s burgeoning population. Closed in 2006, it sat empty for eight years before the blaze that nearly destroyed it was started. Although the building was saved, the abandoned nightclub’s dancing days were over for good.
(Image: via Google Street View)
The owners have since filed for permission to turn the Majestyk into an office block, hopefully preserving its listed exterior. For some Leeds residents, the Majestyk may yet rise again.
Abandoned Satellite Lounge, New Jersey, USA
(Images: Josh Blaine)
One of the surprises of the former Satellite Lounge in New Jersey is that it’s actually a nightclub. From the outside, the broken old building looks like nothing so much as a former nuclear bunker, squirrelled away on a vacant parking lot somewhere. With its heavy walls and imposing facade, it could almost be a military installation. Yet venture inside and you’ll encounter something unexpected: The detritus of a place that has spent years as a club.
Inside, the abandoned nightclub is an absolute ruin. Bar stools have been thrown across the room. Plaster has come cascading off the ceiling. Tables have been smashed, the floor is ankle-deep in dust, and it looks like an earthquake has recently hit the place. Looking at it now, it’s hard to imagine what sort of allure it might have ever held for punters. Yet the photos are strangely enthralling. Its somehow pleasing that such a once-vibrant place could exist out in the middle of nowhere, like a real-life Easter egg, just waiting to be discovered.
The Park Nightclub in Whitehaven, Cumbria, UK
(Images: Dave Wilson Cumbria – website)
For a generation of Cumbrian clubbers, the Park Nightclub was a place that shaped people’s lives. A former swimming pool that was decommissioned in the 1980s and transformed into a dance venue, it saw legions of clubbers tramp through its doors, desperately searching for a good time. Over the years, the Park saw the rise of dance music, the leap into a new century, and more shenanigans than you can shake a stick at. Although it closed in 2004, it is still fondly remembered. In 2015 it topped a poll of ‘Cumbrian nightclubs we wish still existed’.
A vast, psychedelically-coloured space, the club’s interior looked weirdly alien even at the best of times. Once closed, it seemed like the inside of a crashed spaceship from the mid-1980s. It was possible to imagine anything happening here, amid the haze of the fog machines and the thumping bass. Thanks to asbestos being found in the walls, a lot of the building was stripped after closure. Here, the abandoned Park Nightclub simply stands empty; a haunting relic of a much-missed time.
Abandoned Disco G-B, Poland
(Images: Cezary Korsieko – Facebook)
Somewhere in Poland lie the ruins of this forgotten, and overwhelmingly blue, disco. Known simply as Disco G-B, it was clearly once a happening place, in a strange sort of way. Weird tentacle decorations coil their way around the entrance. A gigantic spider-creature hovers over the DJ booth. The décor is both hypnotic and revolting, leading you to wonder exactly sort of clientele Disco G-B may have been serving.
Although the pictures make the abandoned disco appear to be in an advanced – even dangerous – state of collapse, its seems likely that this effect is intentional. The broken pillars seem to have been designed to weird clubbers out, with steel poles doing the actual support work. Nonetheless, derelict Disco G-B is clearly a place in need of some TLC. Whether it will receive it or a visit from the wrecking ball instead is anyone’s guess.
Abandoned Disco in Europe
(Images: MGness – urbexery.com)
This abandoned disco is located ‘somewhere in Europe’. A colourful former nightclub, it almost looks as if it has arrived straight from the 1970s, having shed all its punters somewhere along the way.
The work of urban explorer MGness, details on this desolate place are hard to come by. However, the pictures speak for themselves. Broken, eerie, and oddly-designed, this dead disco is like a relic from another time. The sort of place you’d no longer expect to encounter, it has a feeling of emptiness that eclipses all others. Who used to come here? What did they used to dream of, while dancing under those flashing lights? As with most of these haunting relics, we’ll probably never know.
Abandoned Disco in Turkmenistan
(Image: Mike Moss)
The unlit neon sign at the entrance says it all. This abandoned disco was photographed in Ashgabat, the capital and largest city of the Central Asian country Turkmenistan.
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