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London · Venue

The Social

A compact, split-level West End venue where an upstairs bar feeds into a 150-capacity basement performance room.

Upcoming shows
36
Address
5 Little Portland Street, W1W 7JD London
Next show
Fri, 9 Oct 2026
Official siteDirections
The Social in London

About The Social

The Social is a 250-person, two-floor music bar in London’s West End, shaped in 1999 by David Adjaye and Will Russell. Its defining feature is a split-level plan: a compact, oak-panelled ground-floor bar and a basement room that extends along the site, with a small stage at one end. The configuration makes the venue feel like a bar at arrival and a close-range performance space once the crowd goes downstairs.

Built from a club night

Opened in summer 1999, The Social gave Heavenly Records’ Sunday Social club series a permanent base after runs at Smithfield and Turnmills. Heavenly established the venue with the Breakfast Group; a contemporary report described the result as a local-style bar paired with a club, open to guests beyond a membership model. The commission also belongs to the early joint work of Adjaye and Russell, whose brief placed two bars on the lower floors of an existing building. In March 2019, during its twentieth year, rising rents and an offer for the leasehold from a cocktail-and-wine-bar chain pushed the venue into a survival campaign. It sought £95,000 through crowdfunding for a controlling stake in the leasehold, while benefit events involving the Chemical Brothers and Fatboy Slim supported the drive. The campaign placed music-led use at the center of its case for the future.

The room today

Today its bookers welcome pitches for bands, DJs, launch nights and residencies, matching a calendar that moves through indie, alternative, hip-hop, metal, folk and electronic bills. The basement holds 150 people, while the upstairs bar holds 100, giving gigs a tight room below and leather booths above. The downstairs performance area has no wheelchair access; an accessible toilet sits in the upstairs bar. Sightlines favor those close to the small basement stage, where the room stretches the full length of the site.

Sources

  1. History — The Social
  2. Info — The Social
  3. Drink: Social welfare — The Independent
  4. Adjaye backs campaign to save The Social — Building Design
  5. Agenda item — The Social, 5 Little Portland Street, London, W1W 7JD — Westminster City Council

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