What are people doing instead of clubbing?

Nobody's Going Clubbing Anymore and Honestly Good, Because Look What We're Doing Instead

Something shifted and if you've been paying even a little bit of attention you've probably felt it too. The conversation used to go "what are we doing Saturday night?" and the answer was almost always some version of a club, a queue, a coat check that costs more than your first drink, and then four hours of standing somewhere very loud pretending you can hear what your friend is saying while your feet slowly give up on you. And look, no judgement, there was a time when that was absolutely the answer. But something has genuinely changed and it's not just that we're all getting older, although yes, some of us are absolutely getting older and our knees have opinions about dancefloors that they didn't used to have.

It's bigger than that. People have started asking a different question on a Saturday night. Not just where are we going, but what are we actually going to do. What are we going to come away from. What are we going to remember. And that shift in question has produced the most brilliant explosion of alternatives to clubbing that London has ever seen, and we are here for every single bit of it.

We're not the only ones who've noticed. Have a look at what's happening in this city on any given Friday or Saturday and it tells a story. The queues that used to form outside clubs are now forming outside immersive experiences and creative workshops and late night board game bars and places where you leave with something you made or learned or discovered together. People want more than to stand in a dark room. They want to actually live the evening, not just survive it.

So we thought we'd talk about a few of our favourite alternatives. Things people are actually doing. Real nights out that give you the energy and the shared experience and the "oh my god, do you remember when..." moments that a great night out is supposed to produce. And obviously one of them is us, because we wouldn't be doing our job if we didn't tell you about what we've got going on and genuinely, we think you're going to love it.

Free Flow Painting at Art Play and Yes You Can Order a Pizza

Right, this is our thing and we are very proud of it so allow us a moment to just talk about it properly because we think it's one of the best things happening in London on a weekend evening right now and we don't think we're biased, we think we're just correct.

Free flow painting is exactly what it sounds like and also so much more than it sounds like. You come in, you pick up a brush, you paint. But the beauty of it is that there's no set session, no template you're following, no instructor at the front telling you to paint a sunset in three easy steps. It's genuinely your canvas, your pace, your choices entirely. Some people come in knowing exactly what they want to create. Some people come in with no plan whatsoever and just start making marks and see where it takes them. Both are completely right. Both produce something brilliant.

We also have our painted bears, which if you haven't heard about these yet, welcome to your new obsession. You can paint a bear instead of or as well as a canvas. They are these lovely little figures and people go absolutely wild with them. We've seen people spend an entire evening on the tiniest details of a bear and come out looking like they've had a spa day, just completely in flow and completely at peace. There is something about the focused, repetitive nature of painting something small and detailed that does things to your nervous system that we're not qualified to explain scientifically but that we can absolutely confirm from watching hundreds of people do it.

Now here is the bit that we think is the actual genius of free flow as a night out format. You can order a pizza. A proper pizza, not a sad little snack, an actual pizza that arrives while you're painting and you eat it with painty hands and you don't care because nothing about this evening is precious or performative. It's relaxed and it's real and it is exactly the kind of night out that you don't have to prepare yourself for or dress up for or spend the next day recovering from.

Bring your group. Bring your partner. Come on your own if you fancy it, genuinely, solo visits are some of our favourite evenings to witness because people who come alone to paint by themselves are always in this wonderful private world and they leave looking lighter than when they came in. There's no dress code, there's no bouncer deciding whether your trainers are acceptable, there's no overpriced watered-down drink in a plastic cup. There's paint and pizza and your own pace and a canvas that you're going to be genuinely chuffed with by the end of the night. Book here >>

You'll leave at a reasonable hour. You'll remember everything. You'll have something to show for it. Honestly, compare that to a club night and tell us the club wins. We're waiting.

Draughts Board Game Bar Because Sometimes You Just Need to Beat Your Friends at Something

If you haven't been to Draughts yet then add it to the list right now because it is genuinely one of the best things that has happened to London's evening economy in years. There are a couple of locations to choose from and both of them do essentially the same brilliant thing, which is that they have hundreds and hundreds of board games available, a full bar, really good food, and they let you just get on with it.

The reason board game bars work so well as a clubbing alternative is that they give a group of people something to actually do together, which sounds simple but turns out to be the thing that most traditional nights out are missing. When you're all playing a game, you're all in the same moment. You're laughing at the same things. You're groaning at the same terrible dice roll. Someone is accusing someone else of cheating, someone is reading the instructions for the third time still not quite understanding the rules, someone has decided they're going to take this incredibly seriously and everyone else is finding that hilarious. That's connection. That's a real evening.

The food is good and the drinks are proper, so it doesn't feel like you're compromising on the night out experience. You're not sitting in someone's living room playing Monopoly, you're in a brilliant bar environment that just happens to have several hundred games and staff who will recommend what to play based on your group size and how much you all secretly want to destroy each other.

What we love about Draughts specifically is that the game selection is genuinely thoughtful. Yes there are the classics, but there are also games you've never heard of that immediately become your favourite thing, which is such a good feeling on a night out. Discovering something new with people you like. That's the whole point isn't it. And you can stay for as long as you like, come back for another round of whatever it is that caused the most chaos, and have a genuinely brilliant time without spending a fortune or losing your voice or arriving home at four in the morning questioning your choices.

Candlelight Concerts Because Your Ears Deserve a Night Out Too

This one has taken off in the most wonderful way and if you haven't experienced a Candlelight Concert yet then please, this weekend, sort this out. The concept is so simple that when you first hear it you wonder why nobody did it sooner. Take a beautiful venue, fill it with candles, hire seriously talented musicians, and have them perform something incredible. That's it. That is the whole thing. And yet somehow it creates one of the most memorable, genuinely moving evenings you can have in this city.

The Candlelight Concert series runs all over London and covers everything from classical music to film soundtracks to pop and jazz and everything in between. You might end up in a church in South Kensington hearing a string quartet play an entire Coldplay album by candlelight, which sounds like a strange sentence and is in fact a genuinely extraordinary experience. You might be in a gorgeous gallery or a historic hall or a beautiful space you've never been to before. Part of the appeal is that the venue is always worth visiting in its own right and the music then adds another layer entirely.

What makes this work as a night out is that it gives you something to feel. Not just something to do. You sit in this beautiful flickering light and the music fills the room and there's something that happens in your chest that a club night simply cannot replicate. You come out feeling genuinely moved, like you've had an experience rather than just filled an evening. People go on dates to Candlelight Concerts and leave looking at each other like they've just shared something important, which they have.

It's also very good for people who are a bit done with having to shout everything. You know that thing where you lose your voice every weekend and then spend the whole next week croaking at people? Candlelight solves this completely. You sit, you listen, you feel things, you leave. You can actually talk to the person you came with on the way home. Imagine.

So What Does This All Tell Us

We think it tells us that people have worked out something quite important, which is that a great night out is measured by what it gave you, not just how long it lasted or how loud it was. The mornings after the best nights out aren't about piecing things back together, they're about still feeling the warmth of the evening. Still thinking about the painting you made or the game that came down to the very last turn or the moment the music swelled and the candles flickered and you thought yes, this is exactly where I'm supposed to be right now.

That's what all three of these have in common. They are evenings with a point. Evenings that leave a mark, whether that's literally on a canvas or in the form of a memory that you keep coming back to.

And we'll be honest with you because that's sort of our whole thing. We think free flow painting at Art Play wins. We think the combination of being creative at your own pace, in a beautiful space, with a pizza and a drink and no pressure and total freedom is one of the best ways to spend an evening that London currently offers. We think you'll come in a little unsure and leave absolutely lit up about what you made. We think you'll book again before you've even got home.

But try all three. Mix it up. Have a Draughts night and a Candlelight night and an Art Play night and compare notes with your friends about which one you loved most. Actually, do them all in the same month and then tell us which one came out on top. We've got a feeling we know the answer but we're willing to let you test the theory.

Come and find us. The paint's ready, the bears are waiting, the pizza menu is excellent, and there's not a queue, a coat check, or a four-pound bottle of water in sight.