Basking in the Limelight... art squatters take over superclub

Under new management: members of The Oubliette art collective outside the former Limelight Club in Shaftesbury Avenue

12 April 2012

It was the venue for Bob Geldof's stag night before he married Paula Yates in 1986 and one of the most fashionable celebrity haunts in the West End.

But by 2003 the Limelight Club had fallen on hard times and was taken over by a pub chain.

Now the building in Shaftesbury Avenue has been occupied by eight members of an art collective known for squatting in large homes and embassies in central London.

The converted Welsh Presbyterian church, built in 1888 by James Cubitt, is the new home of The Oubliette group, which intends to turn it into an art gallery and performance venue.

In its heyday in the late Eighties, the Limelight was Britain's top nightclub. Pop singers Boy George, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Steve Strange were among the regulars and George Michael was photographed there with various women before admitting that he was gay.

In 1987, Rachel Macmillan, grand-daughter of the Conservative prime minister, died aged 31 after a night at the Limelight.

But the club's slow decline in popularity led to its closure and a takeover by Australian pub chain The Walkabout, which converted it into a sports bar.

The building had been empty for 12 months before the squatters moved in this week. The group claim they got in legally through an open fire escape door and say they are in negotiations with the building's owners about leaving voluntarily early next year.

The Oubliette's leader Dan Simon, 32, said: "We are using the space to raise awareness of the Belarus Free Theatre who performed at the Young Vic recently in London to draw attention to the oppression of free speech in Belarus."

He added: "We are not breaking the law. We are here purely to give emerging artists a platform. We are more than happy to vacate the property in January leaving it in a better condition than when we found it."

Nick Weir, of property agent Shelley Sandzer who manage the building, said: "We are not delighted but we expect to get the property back in the new year and complete a letting for our client."

The building is said to be worth about £5 million.