Astoria music venue to be demolished

17/03/2008

The historic Astoria music venue in London’s Soho is to be knocked down and replaced with a Crossrail station.

Despite a vigorous campaign to save the former theatre, London mayor, Ken Livingstone announced that the construction of Crossrail was more important and that the Astoria was ‘not at the cutting edge of comfort’ . The venue will close its doors for good at the end of the year.

Mr Livingstone said that a plush concert hall would be included in the new development in Tottenham Court Road.

The 2000-capacity venue has hosted many illustrious acts including the Arctic Monkeys, the Rolling Stones, Radiohead, Foo Fighters, Oasis and Amy Winehouse.

Several bands, including Maximo Park, Franz Ferdinand and Kaiser Chiefs, actively supported the ‘Save the Astoria’ campaign, the aim of which was to prevent the destruction of the venue. Over 35000 signatures were collected on an online petition. Barry Hyde of the Futureheads said last week: “Venues should be dirty, they should be a bit smelly because smelly things happen in venues”.

The Charing Cross Road building was opened as a cinema in 1927 and started its life as a theatre in 1976.

Richard Archer, of the band Hard-Fi, said: “A lot of these older venues have something about them. They were built for live performance and this is one more gone”.