A wave of memories followed the announcement that a popular Salford experimental arts venue will close at the start of next year.
After a decade at the heart of the region’s avant-garde scene, the White Hotel in Lower Broughton will shut up shop in January 2027.
The renowned nightclub, housed inside an old white-brick MOT garage, is in a flood risk zone and will give way to a 60-acre wetland park along the River Irwell.
Copper Park will reduce that flood risk, paving the way for 7,000 homes and large-scale commercial developments in Salford’s Cambridge Industrial Estate and Manchester’s Strangeways district.
With the White Hotel’s impending closure confirmed, DJs and club-goers have paid tribute to the venue’s “raw, authentic spirit.”
Martha Pazienti Caidan, a DJ with her own BBC Radio 1 show championing the underground electronic music scene, was encouraged to visit by her listeners.
Hailing from Peckham in South London, she highlighted that the White Hotel’s legendary reputation extends well beyond Greater Manchester, having infiltrated underground music circles down south.
“People from all corners of the underground scene told me, ‘You will love the White Hotel, it will be your favourite’,” Martha explained. “When my Radio 1 listeners started to say the same, I decided I must go – and it was worth travelling for.”
After playing a set in the Manchester City Centre, the artist made the pilgrimage out of town to the famous Salford club for the first time. “From the moment I got there it just felt so comfortable, especially compared to the set I’d come from,” she recalled.
“It felt more along the lines of a house party with a massive sound system. I felt really safe and it was truly about the music, which I feel like you have to seek out more and more in the kind of era we are living in now.”
That night Martha was struck by the “intriguing” atmosphere Bristol-based DJ Yushh was able to create in the dark, smoky warehouse.
Last summer, the 31-year-old had the “honour” of stepping the other side of the DJ booth when she played at the venue last summer. “I remember how much attention to detail was put into the sound system, which was really special,” she said.
“You can’t really see out as a DJ, and it really removes that layer of perfomatism. I am so glad that I got to play there before it closed because, in terms of small clubs, it’s in my top three of all time.”
It’s a feeling fellow DJ Kevin Holland experienced three times. “The White Hotel closing is a devastating loss for not only Salford and Manchester but UK music culture at large,” the non-binary artist said, adding: “It has been such a haven for so many people and the Hacienda of my generation.”
Kevin too heard of the White Hotel’s was a beacon of the country’s underground scene long before visiting the club for the first time: “I had heard of how crazy it was through friends back home who had been pre-covid though I wasn’t able to attend until 2021.
“I think it’s a rite of passage to fall face forward from the stage platform to the dancefloor when you first come in through the curtain because of how dark and blinding the lights are – it’s been funny seeing that happen to people down the years.”
Originally from Belfast, Kevin moved to the region six years ago to study English and Journalism at Manchester Metropolitan University.
“I’ve been DJing for just as long and have been lucky to play White Hotel three times, the last time was in February.” They highlighted their last set at the venue landed them a place on leading electronic music magazine Resident Advisor’s ‘Mix of the Day’ list.
The DJ, who performs under the stage name K.h0lle, said being recognised for an outstanding performance at their final show now felt “quite bittersweet” in light of the club’s closure. “At least I can have it as a memento of a place that meant so much to me and many others.”
Collings and co-founder Ben Ward told The Guardian last week that the venue will close in January 2027.
Kevin and the masses, grieving the revelation that the White Hotel has reached a crisis point, can take some solace in the fact that it withstood the pressures of its location longer than expected.
When Collings and Ward opened the club in 2015, they had intended to keep it running for only a year before moving to Los Angeles and later settling in Sarajevo. However, the immediate success was impossible to ignore and the pair were convinced to continue their Salford experiment.
Collings and Ward’s venture became known for its embrace of subversive art. In 2018, the White Hotel found itself at the centre of controversy after staging a word-for-word re-enactment of Princess Diana’s funeral.
Club regulars marched through Salford carrying a fake coffin, accompanied by a mariachi band playing Candle in the Wind, alongside a recording of writer Jonathan Meades reading Earl Spencer’s eulogy. Its supporters found this poignant and imaginative. A group of right-wing tabloids deemed the mock cortège unconscionable.
Kevin said the White Hotel’s “dedication to the ethos of experimentation” sets it apart from other underground music venues across the region, adding: “It’s a truly alternative space and I don’t think I’d be the person I am at all now without it.
“There have been so many times when I’ve had really emotional or funny experiences at the 7 or 8 am closes that will stick with me forever, moments with friends who are with us only in spirit now and those chance encounters of people you bump into once but leave an indelible impression.”
“Anyone who attended can attest it’s hands down one of the best parties they’ve been to. Aside from the stellar selections of the DJs, the crowd was just so raucous and a complete melting pot of people from all over, straight, queer, and trans.
“People from all different backgrounds, all on the same buzz, sharing joy. It was one of the most touching things I’ve experienced, especially as we shift into more bleak, divisive times.
“It truly is a place to disappear and escape the pressures of life for a few hours and it became such a needed reprieve as times have gotten tougher. Its placement in Salford also meant that certain sections of people from the City Centre who are less friendly would not bother to come down, which helped it feel like a very safe and relaxed place to be.”
DJ, gig-goer and music writer Tom Randall was one of the first wave of ravers to experience the now storied venue when it opened during his penultimate year studying at University in Manchester.
The 33-year-old, who performs under the alias Japanese.Knotweed, feels its guise as a “decrepit warehouse in Salford” differentiates the space from more commercialised Manchester clubbing institutions such as The Warehouse Project and Sankey’s club, adding to its allure and “authenticity.”
He said: “We see a lot of messaging now around no phones in the rave. Where these big, corporate clubs try to create something that feels authentic, but it is probably surface level.
“One of the reasons they did so well with the sort of no phones policy and people really just went there for the rave was the main room was so smoky you could not video anything anyway,” he added, laughing.
He described a night out at the White Hotel as “like entering a different world” due to the venue being tucked away in an industrial estate in Lower Broughton.
“Going there felt like a special occasion,” he explained. “You were stepping away from the city and you felt like you would enter this space, which belonged to you and everyone around you for the night.
“It’s special. You can lose yourself for an hour in this smoky, dark room with thumping techno and then you’d step outside and have a conversation with someone you’ve never met before. The community that they (Collings and Ward) grew was very different to anywhere else.”
Despite its scheduled closure, the spirit of the White Hotel will live on through a new project from its founders.
They are staging Black Lights, a three-day festival taking place across multiple venues in Blackpool this June.
While it will not replace what is being lost in Salford, the beloved club still has six months of programming left before it closes its doors for the final time.
Given the circumstances, the White Hotel’s farewell will provide a welcome chance to celebrate its legacy, without running the risk of seeing one of the city’s most influential cultural spaces succumb to the River Irwell.
