fabric London: history, rooms, tickets and dress code

What is fabric London?

The short fabric London history is that it is an electronic music club in a Victorian building on Charterhouse Street. Time Out's account says the cellar was once the Metropolitan Cold Stores, a meat store, and that founder Keith Reilly took almost ten years to find the right place. Mixmag names Reilly and Cameron Leslie as the men behind it and dates the opening to 1999. I found no source for the exact opening date, so this page gives the year only.

The club writes its name in lower case, and so does this page. Its own FAQ describes the music policy by night: Fridays carry a range of electronic styles, Saturdays are mostly house, techno and electro, and Sunday is a weekly party called Come As You Are for forward-looking house and techno. Friday also holds the club's FABRICLIVE nights, which the FAQ describes as UK sounds and bass-led genres.

The residents page lists three founding residents. Craig Richards has played more than 700 Saturday nights since 1999, according to the club. Terry Francis and Ricardo Villalobos are the other two, and the page says Villalobos first played Room 1 more than 20 years ago.

The club also runs record labels (fabric Records, fabric Originals and Houndstooth) and a mix series, and it marked its 25th birthday in 2024 with a year of events in London and abroad.

Tickets

fabric London tickets are sold through Resident Advisor, which the club's site links to from its listings and its Buy Tickets button. This page quotes no prices. The club's own site does not publish them, and the Resident Advisor listing could not be read when this page was written. Prices are set per night, so check the listing for the event you want.

Check the entry time printed on the ticket. The entry policy explains that tickets are valid all night, but Early Entry tickets must be used by the stated time and Entry After tickets only after it. Arriving outside that window means paying an upgrade fee. The last entry is always one hour before the event ends.

Opening times and address

The fabric London address is 77a Charterhouse Street, London EC1M 6HJ. The official directions say to walk from Farringdon station towards Smithfield Market and turn right onto Charterhouse Street. Farringdon is served by the Circle, Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Elizabeth lines. Chancery Lane on the Central line is close, and the club notes it runs all night on Friday and Saturday.

The fabric London opening times in the FAQ are:

The listings read on 4 October 2026 show how much the hours vary. Friday 9 October runs 23:00 to 06:00, Saturday 10 October runs 23:00 to 07:00, and Sunday 11 October is listed as 18:00 to 02:00. The club does not publish set times in advance. It says they are posted around the club on the night and sometimes shared in its WhatsApp and Telegram communities.

What is the dress code?

The club's FAQ gives its fabric London dress code in two sentences. Guests are encouraged to dress as they like, but the club reserves the right to refuse entry to anyone whose clothes it feels are not suited to the night. Business suits, flags and glow wear are not permitted, and flags are specifically banned from the dance floor.

Nothing on the official site lists specific shoes, brands or colours, so any wider rule you read elsewhere is not the club's. Phones are covered separately: the club has a no photo policy, introduced in June 2021, and its FAQ says stickers are put on phone cameras at the door. Phones are still allowed for finding friends and ordering a ride.

Capacity and rooms

The fabric London capacity for a club night is not stated on the club's site. The private hire page gives maximum guest numbers by room: up to 1000 in Room 1 and the Mezz Bar, up to 500 in Room 2 and the Sunken Bar, and up to 150 in Room 3. It describes the whole venue as 25,000 square feet with five bars and a hire capacity of 100 to 1,500. Mixmag's 2016 tribute gave the club's capacity as 2500. Those figures come from different purposes and years, so no single number is safe to quote for a night out.

Searches for fabric London room 1 usually mean the main room, which the club writes as Room 1 and Room One. The three rooms are connected:

Room 1 has a dance floor with its own history. The club says it was designed around Bodysonic transducers, with a quadraphonic speaker system, by Keith Reilly and Dave Parry, and that it has been rebuilt as the BodyKinetic floor with Powersoft. The old floor needed more than 450 transducers and the new one uses 36. The club also says Rooms 2 and 3 have new sound systems co-designed with NNNN Audio, the first full redesign of Room 2 since 2016 and of Room 3 since 2018. I found no date on the dance floor post, so this page gives none.

The club has seating opposite the Sunken Bar between Rooms 1 and 2, and a smoking area open all night. A quieter mezzanine above Room 1 is open at some events. The accessibility page lists a lift 73 centimetres wide and says step-free access depends on it working, with a WhatsApp channel for status.

Line-up and events

The fabric London lineup changes weekly, and the club lists it on its What's On page, with each event linking to Resident Advisor. On 4 October 2026 the listings included Aaron Hibell, KiNK, Slam and The Tunegirl on Saturday 10 October and The Martinez Brothers on Sunday 11 October. These are examples from one day, not a schedule, so check the page.

The fabric London events calendar also includes the FABRICLIVE Friday nights, and a 27th birthday night was listed on the same page. The homepage announces a four-year partnership with St Paul's Cathedral, which makes the club the cathedral's exclusive partner for contemporary music.

For a sense of the rooms, three sets were filmed at the club. Josh Caffe played Room One in 2021 for Beatport's London Unlocked series. In 2014 Boiler Room filmed a night with fabric that included Swindle playing with a live band and a back to back session from Elijah and Skiliam, Royal-T and Flava D.

What happened in 2016?

Why fabric London closed in 2016 starts with two deaths. The joint statement from Islington Council and the club says an 18-year-old man died on 25 June 2016 after a night at the club, and another 18-year-old died on 6 August. On 10 August the Metropolitan Police applied for a review of the licence, and on 12 August a council sub-committee suspended it.

On 6 September, after a hearing that Resident Advisor reported lasted more than six hours, the sub-committee revoked the licence. Its chair said a culture of drugs existed that management and security appeared incapable of controlling. Mixmag put the loss at 250 jobs, and a change.org petition passed 140,000 signatures, according to Resident Advisor.

The fabric London reopening followed an appeal. On 21 November 2016 the club and Islington Council confirmed an agreement in Highbury Magistrates Court, a week before a four-day appeal hearing was due to start. The council statement lists the new measures:

• ID scanning at the door.
• Lifetime bans for anyone found with drugs, or trying to buy them, in the club.
• Enhanced monitoring and external auditing, new lighting and CCTV, and a new security company.
• No customers under 19 from 20:00 on Friday until 08:00 on Monday, or on any core club night.

Time Out reported on 2 December 2016 that a reopening weekend was planned for 6 to 8 January 2017, with Craig Richards and Terry Francis returning on 7 January. The club's current rule is 18 and over. I found no source explaining when the under-19 condition changed, so this page does not claim a date for it.

For the debate at the time, Boiler Room streamed a panel titled Can Nightlife be Saved? Live from Fabric, with the MP for Islington South and Finsbury, Goldie, and co-founder Cameron Leslie.