Over the 60-plus years storied jazz club Ronnie Scott’s has been on Frith Street in Soho, its upstairs space has played many roles. “It was a disco, there was a random punk band – but it wasn’t the stuff of legends like downstairs,” Fred Nash, Ronnie Scott’s managing director, says. So when a full-blown revamp of the building got underway a few years ago, Nash and his team didn’t feel the same pressure of legacy they experienced when they subtly upgraded the main music room in 2024.
“We didn’t feel the same obligation to preserve what had been,” Nash says. The 140-capacity venue has just reopened, and it’s impressive in its own right.
Ambitions were set high when it came time to reimagining upstairs – which most recently had been an awkwardly shaped music room, where many of the seats didn’t even face the stage. “We wanted to turn it into … what we audaciously called the greatest small live music venue in the world,” Nash says.
This mantra was expressed to Archer Humphryes Architects (Chiltern Firehouse, The Standard London), which worked with the Ronnie Scott’s team to take all the details that make the downstairs club perfect and echo them upstairs – from sound systems to design. “Upstairs had to be that jaw drop,” Nash says. Panels on the ceiling and on the domed skylights are covered in an intricately patterned fabric from a female-owned printmaker in Zimbabwe, the joinery is high end and bespoke table lamps were designed by Archer Humphryes and made by Atelier Lighting. Importantly, tables, booth and banquettes are oriented to now actually face the stage.
The same attention to detail has been paid to the soundscape. A Yamaha S3X grand piano is smaller “but of the same stature” as the piano downstairs. Like the main venue, upstairs has a sound system by D&B Audiotechnik – “we were even surprised at how good the sound was when we first heard it” Nash says.
Playing through that new sound system is a cross section of genres. Jazz artists will feature heavily, but so will soul, R&B, gospel, hip-hop, classical and more. There’ll be grassroots performances at the Upstairs at Ronnie’s series – a version of the downstairs space’s storied Ronnie Scott’s Late Late Show, as well as Sunday gospel sessions. In the coming months a members-only space will give members and performers a bar to enjoy post-show.
A big draw for the reimagined space is the food. The revamp has allowed for the installation of a larger kitchen, which is led by executive chef Steven Connolly (formerly senior head chef at The Ned). “When people come out to see a show at a jazz club, it's dinner time, and most people want to eat,” Nash says. Fifty per cent of the audience downstairs eats at Ronnie Scott’s; the upstairs room will have its own kitchen team and floor staff, as well as its own menu. “Jazz clubs around the world don’t tend to have great food, but we wanted to turn that on its head.” Menu highlights include a lamb wellington and an ex-dairy cow steak. While downstairs most of the dinner service happens during performances, there will be 15 or 20 minutes at the start of each show upstairs for guests to relax and get their orders in.
Ultimately, Nash and his team want to build on the past 67 years of Ronnie Scott’s legacy. “We’re looking forward to the next generation,” Nash says. “I would like it to be a place the UK is fond of in the same way that they are of the club downstairs, and that it has that legacy in 50 years.”
Ronnie Scott’s Upstairs
47 Frith Street, W1D 4HT
02074390747
Hours:
Mon 5.30pm–2am
Tue 5.30pm–midnight
Wed to Sat 5.30pm–3am
Sun midday–4pm, 6.30pm–midnight
