Oct 16, 20212 min read

Home - £10,000,000 clubbing for the noughties..

Its how you look.. Its how you listen.. Its who you are..

Home nightclub.. (owners Big Beat International) Situated at No1 Leicester Square and opening in September 1999 it promised a wide array of DJs across some seven floors with a capacity of around 2400 and for a while it seemed to deliver with the likes of Danny Rampling, Steve Lawler, Tim Sheridan, Dave Haslam, Dave Ralph and Paul Oakenfold all weekly residents. Oakenfold seemed to be the most prominent face in the launch of the club and was also the 'director of music policy' which kind of made this a club on a very corporate level, I mean why have a director of music? Was this really the future, a vision of what we were to expect from London clubbing? maybe the whole corporate glitzy celeb image contributed to some of the mixed reviews the nights had at the time.. Love Ranch at Maximus this was not.. It could be argued that the club was opened as we saw the millennium debacle on the horizon, a time when door prices were rising and reports were circulating about just how much money some DJs were commanding just to make an appearance and play records and.. lets face it we all know how 99-00 ended for some organisations. The clubs relatively short life span was down to Westminster Council revoking the buildings public entertainment licence over alleged open drug taking which according to undercover police officers was rife at the time. This was on top of issues with licence applications for previous events. It quite frankly looked like the club was not wanted and at some point by whatever means Westminster council would seal its fate "The city council will continue to work closely with the police and the entertainment industry to try and stamp out such illegal, dangerous and anti-social activity.". Its rumoured there had been warnings to the clubs management but no real action was being taken. This all came about despite the fact the club employed a pretty rigorous door search. Things came to an end late March 2001 after an emergency council meeting, the PEL was revoked and it was over. Two weeks later the venue went in administration with KPMG Recovery stating that given the investment into the building and its prime location cash flow difficulties started almost immediately.