Mention the words ‘Madame Jojos’ to Londoners of a certain age and you might see them well up with big, fat nostalgia-sodden tears. The seminal Soho institution was home to all sorts of activities which straddled the seedy/glam divide with aplomb, most notably, the Tuesday night sensation that was White Heat. If you were there in those heady days, glugging down £2.50 spirit and mixers like there was no lecture tomorrow, standing in the corner while your more confident mates danced to Justice and Foals and Kissy Sell out and The Long Blondes, getting lost in the mirrored bathrooms, and stumbling into the McDonalds by Picadilly Circus before passing out on a 453 back to New Cross, you’ll remember that Madame Jojo’s, on the right night, felt like the best club in the world. I mean, it obviously wasn’t, but if it was good enough for Kubrick, it was good enough for us.
In late 2014, the club shut its doors, after Westminster council revoked the license. The premises owners, Soho Estates, had submitted planning applications which, if successful, would have seen the legendary burlesque spot radically altered. Some described its closure as “the final death rattle of Soho,” and despite protests, the club remains closed. All hope looked lost. Soho, for many, was an area of the city increasingly stripped of its essential essence, becoming another London enclave that had to submit to the city council’s increasingly homogenised vision for the future. And, for a lot of students, it meant one less place to get very pissed for fuck all on a weeknight. We all lost out.
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Until now that is. In an interview this morning with London Live, Soho Estates managing director John James appeared to claim that Madame Jojos will be re-opening. In some form at least. As it stands, he says the club “isn’t fit for purpose,” but he’s prepared to rebuild the site. “We’re going to build a bigger and better basement club which is going to reappear as Madame Jojo’s.” Which is good news. Watch the interview in full below.
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