The Leisure Lounge

The Leisure Lounge was a large nightclub at 121 High Holborn in central London, occupying a former snooker hall known as the Old Paddocks. It was converted and launched in 1994 by music promoter and nightclub impresario Sean McLusky, who had previously run The Brain in Soho and would go on to found Club UK in Wandsworth.

The venue opened with a party that included a live set from punk veterans the Buzzcocks, setting the tone for a club that mixed dance music with live bands and art events, including an early photography exhibition by portraitist Rankin in its chill-out area. Downstairs, the main room was a cavernous, school-gym-like space with a huge video screen, tiered bench seating and a small chill-out bar, reportedly holding around 800 people with a custom 22K sound rig.

Through the mid-to-late 1990s the Leisure Lounge became a fixture of London's dance scene. Graham Gold's Peach ran on Fridays, while Saturdays hosted the club's own in-house Leisure Lounge night, promoted by McLusky and the late Bernie Schumann. Goldie's influential drum & bass night Metalheadz also found a home there, and in 1995 the long-running gay indie club Popstarz moved in after stints at the Paradise Club and the Hanover Grand, bringing a very different crowd through the doors on different nights. Oasis reportedly held an after-party there in 1994 following a gig at the Astoria.

For mid-1990s London clubbers, the Leisure Lounge was known as an unpretentious, high-energy venue that welcomed a broad mix of people, from indie kids to drum & bass heads, rather than cultivating an exclusive door policy. It is remembered as part of a wave of warehouse-style conversions that defined Britpop-era London nightlife alongside venues like Club UK. The club was still running as late as 1998, though the exact date it finally closed its doors as the Leisure Lounge is not well documented.

The building at 121 High Holborn later found a new use in the 2010s: in 2012 it reopened as Bounce, a ping-pong-themed bar and restaurant, a use that continued for some years afterwards, with the venue still sometimes referred to in listings as 'Bounce, formerly Leisure Lounge'.