The Venue (New Cross, London)

The Venue

Location	2 Clifton Rise / 325 to 327 New Cross Road New Cross, London, SE14
Capacity	1400
Opened	as New Cross Super Kinema (1925 - 1927) as New Cross Kinema (1927 - 1948) as Kinema (1948 - 1950) as Gaumont New Cross (1950 to 1960) as The Harp Club (1960s - 1989) as The Venue (1989)
Closed	2020

The Venue was a music venue and nightclub in a former cinema located in New Cross, London, England.

The building first opened as a cinema named the New Cross Super Kinema in 1925. This was shortened to the New Cross Kinema in 1927,^[1] and further to just Kinema in 1948. During this time the building also housed the New Cross Palais de Danse.^[2] It became the Gaumont New Cross in 1950.^[3]

After this it was an Irish traditional music and Irish country dance hall named The Harp Club.^[4] In the 1970s the club hired out its rooms for reggae nights.^[5] By the late 1980s it had also become a venue for genres such as indie pop, goth, and acid house.^[6][7][8]

It opened as The Venue in April 1989.^[9][10] Artists to perform there included Oasis,^[11] Pulp,^[12] Suede,^[13] Blur, Lush,^[14] Radiohead,^[15] Chumbawamba,^[16] Teenage Fanclub,^[17] Mudhoney, Hole,^[18] Front Line Assembly,^[19] Current 93,^[20] The Melvins,^[21] Shed 7,^[22] The Cardiacs,^[23] and Subhumans.^[24]

Boxer Dominic Negus was a bouncer there for a time.^[25]

By the 2000s the majority of live concerts there were tribute acts,^[26] and it largely functioned more as a DJ-oriented nightclub.^[27]