Durham Nightlife

Durham's claim to fame for many years was being host to the worst nightclub in Britain, the infamous Klute. It is still there, still as unfathomably popular as ever, and has even been revamped with a VIP lounge (). Its old rivals on North Street weren't much better, and have a habit of changing names very frequently...I think one goes by the name of Bar 21, not sure about the other, but look out for the queues of drunken females who, even on the bitterest winter night, wear less than some people wear for swimming and somehow manage not to freeze. A new club, which seems to be the current favourite, is Loveshack, down by the new library/theatre complex on Claypath.

Bars...we'll start with North Street, the liveliest end of town which often resembles the set of a horror movie after dark. Wetherspoons and Walkabout (in the old cinema) are the two big ones here. Up in town, on the Bailey you've got Fabio's, a pretentious and loud bar a floor above La Spaghettata restaurant. Down under Elvet Bridge, in the old boathouse, is Chase, which really should be better than it is...I mean, if I was going to save a building from dereliction and renovate it into a trendy bar, I think I would have gone for furniture that doesn't look as if it was bought at a charity shop, and can you really buy carpets like that anymore? A drink on the balcony in summer is great, but inside is dingy. Opposite, built inside the actual bridge, is Jimmy Allen's...an intriguing place on many floors, the one problem I have with this is that it is too loud. Clubs have loud music because people go to dance, but there's no room in Jimmy Allen's to dance, so you end up with people sat round tables yelling their heads off at each other attempting a conversation....there are tables outside by the river in summer though. A quieter bar is the new Bishop's Mill, with several themed rooms...one looks like an old library with a fireplace, another is dark with blue lamps...it's next to Loveshack in the new development.

The less you wear, the more local you appear! Something that has baffled scientists for decades is how people in the North East, women especially, wear practically nothing on a night out and don't feel the cold!

Weeknights tend to be student nights, while Fridays and Saturdays are the big local nights. It used to be that the two rarely mixed, and students were advised against going out at weekends, and to stick to college bars and the students' union...but now, it seems this is not as true as it was.

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Durham Nightlife

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