London's empty office blocks could be turned into ‘late night party zones'

Time Out

18-07-2025

Would you go to a club in a skyscraper as high as Gherkin, the Shard, or the Walkie Talkie? Because that could be the future of going out in London.
A new report from a creative studio has suggested that London's empty office blocks could be used on the weekends house nightclubs.
The most recent edition of an annual report by Bombas and Parr, titled the 'Future of P-Leisure', has said that the solution to London's nightlife crisis could be to just look up. Presented at the Barbican last week, the authors of the report said that putting temporary clubs in skyscrapers could utilise unused space in the City, while also provide late-night areas that wouldn't risk causing clashes with neighbours and getting noise complaints.
Bombas and Parr suggested that tower blocks could be used for 'finance by day, and rave by night'. 'While over half a million people work every day in the Square Mile of the City of London, only 8,000 people actually live there,' the report said. 'This daily mass exodus leaves immense square meterage that could house nocturnal revelry...
'With few residents to file noise complaints, organisers capitalise on the empty, echoing canyons of glass and steel. Empty office lobbies become sought-after DJ booths, rooftops host industry-defining light shows, and any space that isn't locked morphs into a dance floor to create a sprawling web of passionate chaos as capitalism and counterculture merge.'
While quite the lofty idea, Michael Kill, chief executive of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), told the Guardian it might be less far-fetched than it sounds. Kill said that the need to boost footfall in financial districts that have suffered after the shift to work-from-home, alongside the prospect of fewer noise complaints, could make this ambitious proposition appealing.
'There are conversations going on about things like the City of London, where the financial district is, as there is a very limited residential core so without a doubt, given some of the noise complaints and restrictions, that actually makes sense and works for nightlife,' Kill told the newspaper.
Kill also said that conversations were ongoing about how zoning rules could be adjusted to give 'preferential planning and licensing opportunities' to nightlife and hospitality businesses in financial areas.
Could the future see us all two-stepping the night away on the Gherkin's 41st floor? Just maybe.
The 40 best nightclubs in London.