Printworks London: reopening, closure and history

Is Printworks coming back?

Yes, officially, but with no date. After the closing weekend in 2023, Broadwick's Simeon Aldred told DJ Mag the company hoped to return in three years. Resident Advisor reported on 2 May 2023 that he could not say a return was definite and that no contracts were signed. The owners later confirmed it in planning documents, which carry more weight than hopes in an interview.

What is official: British Land, the owner, and its partner AustralianSuper applied to Southwark Council in February 2024 to revive Printworks as a permanent cultural venue. What is not official: any opening month, any lineup and any ticket sale. If a site claims to sell tickets for a Printworks London night, treat it with suspicion.

Printworks London reopening: what is official

The sequence, from the owner's and the council's own material, is short.

So the Printworks London reopening is real but delayed. A local news report in May 2026 carried a heading about a delay to the return of nightlife. I could not confirm that the revised application has been submitted, and I found no date. No source I read puts a Printworks London 2026 reopening on the calendar, so check the official site rather than relying on this page.

For any Printworks reopening news, the owner's releases, Southwark's planning pages and the consultation material are the sources that count.

Why did Printworks close?

Why did Printworks close? Because the owner wanted the building for something else. British Land proposed turning it into offices, hinted at in October 2021, and campaigners gathered more than 10,000 signatures against the plan. Southwark approved it on 11 July 2022, according to Mixmag, and the club ran on a temporary six-year consent.

Printworks London closed on 1 May 2023. The BBC covered the final show, and the closing weekend ran across four days. Resident Advisor lists Bicep, Katy B and Peggy Gou. Mixmag adds Black Coffee, BAMBII, Andy C and Róisín Murphy, and the Guardian reports Murphy played the closing set.

Printworks London closed with the stated plan to return, which is why this guide treats the venue as closed and returning rather than gone.

Printworks London history

The building was put up in the 1980s by the Daily Mail Group and housed the presses for the Daily Mail and the Evening Standard, according to the Guardian. The last paper roll was kept. The last press is four storeys high and weighs 150 tonnes. The Printworks London opening night was Saturday 4 February 2017, a launch night called Extravaganza: Seth Troxler, Loco Dice and The Martinez Brothers played back to back in Room 1, with Krankbrother, Geddes and G. Walker in Room 2.

The venue operated for six years. Broadwick's page cites more than 500,000 electronic guests, more than 200,000 live music tickets and more than 750,000 attendance in total. British Land's 2024 release says 2.5 million visitors, 300 concerts and 200 film shoots since 2017. These figures differ in what they count and who is counting, so quote them with the source.

DJ Mag's Top 100 Clubs poll put it second in 2023, listing a capacity of 6,000. I did not verify its placing in earlier years.

Printworks London rooms and capacity

The Printworks London capacity was 6,000, according to the BBC at closing and DJ Mag's 2023 listing. The main space was the Press Halls, a hall about 130 metres long under a three-storey video screen, in a building of roughly 10,000 square metres. The Guardian described the second room as a low-ceilinged, grubby space, and said Broadwick wanted to keep that character.

The Printworks London rooms changed over time. The Inkwell was revealed in 2021 as a smaller room with a low ceiling and concrete pillars. A Live Room stage hosted a London Symphony Orchestra show with Soweto Kinch in March 2023, reported by DJ Mag, but it was a stage rather than a third nightclub room. Sources disagree on room counts and names beyond the Press Halls and the Inkwell, so this page names only those two. For a sense of the place in its first year, Adam Beyer's 2017 set was filmed there.

Printworks London events and lineup

The Printworks London events calendar included many label and promoter takeovers. DJ Mag's listing names Glitterbox, The Hydra, Defected, FWD>>, ANTS, Afterlife, Anjunadeep, La Discotheque, FUSE, DNB Allstars and Body Movements. Its list of headliners includes Moodyman, Helena Hauff, Bicep, Charlotte de Witte, Skepta, Nina Kraviz, Sub Focus, Marco Carola, Honey Dijon, Maya Jane Coles, Adam Beyer and Peggy Gou.

There is no current Printworks London lineup and there are no Printworks London tickets on sale. The old nights are best heard rather than read, and the sets on this page were filmed in the building. The Martinez Brothers, who were on the opening bill, and Sonny Fodera were both filmed there by DJ Mag.

Is Drumsheds the new Printworks?

Not officially. Drumsheds is a separate venue in a former IKEA store in north London, 608,000 square feet with a 15,000 capacity and three rooms, the largest holding 9,000, according to the BBC in November 2023. It is run by the same operator, Broadwick, and the BBC wrote that it fills a gap left by the closure of Printworks. That is the BBC's framing, not a statement from the operator, and I found no official line saying Drumsheds replaces or succeeds Printworks.

The comparison between Drumsheds London and Printworks stops at the operator, as the table shows.

Both run on temporary permission, which is part of why neither is a permanent answer. The Guardian reported in January 2025 that it is the UK's largest nightclub and that Enfield Council held a licensing review after the Metropolitan Police cited drug-related incidents. It stayed open on modified terms. A search for Drumsheds Printworks usually wants one answer: one is open, the other is not.

Printworks London closed: where to go instead

While Printworks London is closed, the nearest equivalents are other London rooms, not a copy of the building. The London clubs guide covers the full list of venues by neighbourhood and size. For a single club with three rooms, the fabric London guide gives times, ticket routes and the dress code.

If scale is what you want, Drumsheds is the large room that is open. If the industrial setting is what you want, no other London venue was a print hall, so expect something different.