some of it was true!

It’s a question I’ve been pondering for some time now.  This after numerous declarations from the theatre/lounge bar of last nights and claims of final events, only for more nights, more events, and one more, revised, closing date. 

Shunt’s unwillingness to slink off into the odorous London Bridge night seems at odds with the spirit of these times.  This is an age of of fashion fairs, one-day festivals, temporary installations and pop-up bars – even the thoroughly-excellent Double Club in Angel, after procrastinating once, managed to keep its closure promise.   No-one sticks around any more; even “Everything Must Go”-type closing sale shops are outlawed in our impatient society.  If your time is up, just sod off.  Shunt’s just not entering into the  2009 mentality.

Opinions on the venue are perhaps uniquely wide-ranging.  For some it’s the epitome of coolness; they salivate over the esoterica on offer at this unmarked freak parade, revel in its performance art and brash décor, and exult at the cleverness of founding a club in the vaults below a dusty train terminus.  But for others it’s a grotty, dusty dinge-hole, populated by prententious pratts in velvet jackets,blighted by far-too-abstract “entertainment”, and fatally undermined by the difficulty involved in simply getting a drink.

Whatever your take, you’ll be happy or sad (or indifferent) to hear that Shunt has a brand-new closing date: Saturday 14 November.  Time will tell if they keep their word…