Astoria’s Silent Goodbye

Fans gather to campaign for replacement venue

28 March 2009 - A small group of campaigners took part in a silent disco outside the Astoria in central London in a bid to get more information about the venue’s replacement.

The Astoria shut its doors for the last time in January after a £16 billion Crossrail development finally got the green light.

The deal included guarantees that a venue of similar size would be built in central London to make up for the loss of one of the capital’s best loved music venues.

Facebook groups and a petition have been set up to pressure Westminster Council and Crossrail into announcing who will be responsible for the new build.

Despite their attempts to find out more information, protest organiser India Walker told 6 Music they’re being kept in the dark:

“We’re going to keep writing to Boris Johnson and Crossrail and Westminster Council until we find out who is responsible because they each are saying each other.

“We’re going to bug them until we get a similar venue built.”

Organisers were probably hoping for a larger turnout for the Astoria’s final send off, but perhaps the hail, rain and higher profile G20 protests in Hyde Park took some potential silent disco-ers away.

One protestor told 6 Music why she was there, “I came down, just to remind myself of what good times I had within this building. It’s a shame that it’s going in its entirety, I was hoping they would keep some of the front.”

Another added, “I think we haven’t got sufficient information about what’s going on.”

A police riot van and some security fencing were on stand by, however, the protest was peaceful with campaigners handing out flyers and dancing to the sounds coming from their MP3 players.

Rather fittingly, it was a silent goodbye to a now silent venue.

Will Drysdale