In late 1995, London’s night people started seeing mysterious flyers that teased “The End is coming”. That December, everything became clear when a new, cutting-edge nightclub called The End opened in Holborn. It had a free communal water fountain – positively munificent at the time – and a dancefloor sprung with hydraulics to ease the strain on ravers’ joints. When Posh and Becks popped in a few years later, they were treated the same as everyone else. “I’ve always believed that clubbing is the great leveller,” co-founder Layo Paskin tells Broadsheet.
According to DJ-producer Jodie Harsh, a regular at The End’s Monday electro night Trash and Thursday gay rave Discotec, this sense of “dancefloor democracy” made the place special – that and the fact “it had the best sound system in town”. The End welcomed London’s clubbing connoisseurs until 2009, when Layo and his sister Zoë Paskin, the club’s MD, accepted “a good offer” to sell the premises. “It was tough for us on a personal level, but great for The End’s legacy because we went out on top,” Layo says.
Now, to celebrate the club’s 30th anniversary, The End is coming once more with a three-night residency at Koko in Camden. Over the weekend of October 10 to 12, it’ll host a party dedicated to a dance genre that flourished at the original club: techno, house and drum'n'bass. On the first night, Layo will get behind the decks with his old djing partner Bushwacka; on the second, he’ll spin discs alongside Mr C, the house music pioneer with whom he co-founded The End. “We want these nights to feel like cultural events as well as great parties with an electric vibe,” Layo says. Each night will begin with a panel discussing a different facet of electronic music and club culture, including one hosted by techno legend Danny Tenaglia.
After calling time on The End, Layo and Zoë made a successful sideways move into hospitality. In October, they’re also celebrating the 10th anniversary of The Palomar, their buzzy bar-restaurant in Soho that serves food influenced by southern Spain, North Africa and the Levant. “There are more moments of truth when you run a restaurant,” Zoë says. “In a club, if people walk in and find the security staff are nice, the place is looked after and the DJ is smashing it, they’ll walk away happy. In a restaurant, the smallest thing like a dropped plate can dampen someone’s night. And there’s no bouncer to throw out troublemakers!”
The siblings’ restaurant portfolio is flourishing – they also run Evelyn’s Table and The Barbary in London, and a Sydney, Australia branch of The Palomar is imminent – but Zoë admits they “still miss the incredible energy” of The End. Back then, of course, there were no camera phones to catch any (friendly) transgressions on the dancefloor. “I think the world feels quite fraught and complicated right now,” Layo says. “So I hope we can really take people back to a time and place where they just felt free and full of optimism.”
The End residency is at Koko from October 10–12. Find out more at koko.co.uk. and book tickets at seetickets.com.
