Shunt Vaults

CityCat

creepy/cool... 27th September 2009

1 found this helpful

Damp, dark, eerie, low-lit caverns underground London Bridge.. Absolutely loved a recent night here. There were exhibitions set up in some rooms and live music too. It was so much fun to wander round! Can't recommend enough.

Yambo

25th May 2009

0 found this helpful

Shunt

stantoncarlisle

grubby diamond 1st January 2009

2 found this helpful

Coming out of London Bridge Underground through the turnstiles into Joiner Street is a black door where you can leave the harried commuter faces behind. In The Portrait of Dorian Gray, Dorian enters an East Opium den with a dwarf at the entrance, a gateway to another world. The nondescript door at Shunt Vaults is like that. Inside, mobile phones don't work, the signal can't penetrate the vast arcs of concrete, brick and stone. The Outside world is placed in suspended animation - at least for a while. The entrance smells acrid in a mausoleum way, dusty and claustrophobic. The foul smell and dripping water continues along the candle-dotted corridor until you get to the huge inner chamber which opens out Lord of Rings fashion. It doesn't have the polished artificial gleam of CGI, its way more decrepit. With bars, movies screens and game rooms what you get is a cross between a squat artists collective and the Playboy mansion with a spoonful of hedonism, unpredictability, lots of space and the idea that more surprises lurk around the corner. The quality of events depends on the programmer and how organized they are. Which can be darn variable.They shipped in filmmaker Kenneth Anger, the great granddaddy of subversive film. Showed his films. Ran into technical difficulties, ran out of time and didn't give Hollywood Babylon Ken time to talk or answer questions. Bit of a waste - surely Kens rap would be more interesting than a video projection to any culture monger. That night was dogged by disorganization. No announcements that the film show was ready to roll - despite constant promises. Lots of venue changing and pushing & shoving by Latinos with lousy manners connected with the place. Be prepared - this gaff has Unisex toilets with no bolts on the cubicles. I don't mind girlies wanging in through the stall door when I'm having a piss but then I'm fairly easygoing. On the whole events and programming varies from the sublime to the toothless. A great place to know about. I'd get in there before it's totally taken over as the watering hole of banal arty airheads looking for Nathan Barley.

Lynth

Dickens party at Shunt 12th December 2008

0 found this helpful

I had a wkd time, the atmosphere was amazing, the company was brilliant and I got absolutly hammered!! Good times

Brooklyn45

"The Vaults" follow up. 15th November 2008

1 found this helpful

Not sure what the Shunt Vaults are like today. But, when we visited two years ago (to see a show called "Tropicana") the experience was terrific. Tropicana was the show and the main task (at least for us) was to find out how to get in. The entrance to the "show" was through a door in a wall (very well concealed) in the side of a tube station. Once we figured this out we were escorted through the entrance into what appeared to be the locker room for the tube employees. Then we went through a locker (no kidding) and entered into an area where we could order (and get) drinks through a rather small window. After that we went down an elevator to the "vaults". The rest of the evening was a mixture of completely dark (entirely) and then rather extraordinary props and characters. Overall it was a great evening. We would do it again in a heartbeat. And now that the UK pound is coming down from the stratosphere we may very well be in London in a few weeks. We always look forward to our return. We love the U.K. and can't wait to get back.

gregwo

Amazing place 3rd September 2008

2 found this helpful

The Shunt Vaults have an atmosphere that can't be matched-- deep in the tunnels of London Bridge Shunt is making amazingly craetive work in the context of a members bar. It's a fantastic evening where you can enjoy some drinks and check out whatever is on offer that week to see-- bands performance art, theatre or a range of other things. The place has a great buzz about it and there's nothing that I know of like it around. The work they create there is so interesting and diverse, you'll always be in for something new every time you go!

Most definitely worth checking out!

girlswear

No place like Shunt 18th August 2008

6 found this helpful

This is one of my favourite places in London. The Shunt Vaults situated beneath the London Bridge, you can still feel the dampness and musty air of this Victorian vault.

No matter how often you visit, it's a different experience on it's own, mainly because each week is curated by a different artist including art, performance art, dance, live band and DJs. Permanent area includes a small pinball arcade and pool. You can go into different rooms with different things happening, or find that secret vault with your friends. Shunt is a MUST experience if you've never been, and you'll be addicted.

£5 entry for Wednesdays and Thursdays, £10 for weekends. There are seasonal passes available for sale which allows you and one guest to get in, no queue. Entry stops at midnight but there is late license inside the place. On weekends, I highly suggest to go early as by 10pm, the queue is impossible. Besides, if you go earlier, there are more chances you can get free tickets to participate in some of the installations or performances.

Also, ideal for dates! Especially when your date is going well, can sneak into one of those secret vaults for a snog. Having said that, on their website's FAQ, they do mentioned no sex is allowed anywhere in the facility :P

One last thing – MUST BRING PHOTO ID! NO ID, NO ENTRY!

Niamheen at 19/08/08

I have planned to go here for the longest time. Everyone raves about it and sounds like a really interesting place. I really must go!

Lacrimosa at 27/08/08

Great to hear that this place is still open, as there was a rumour that it might close last year... must go again sometime.

girlswear at 27/08/09

Yeah, the rumour is true, but they've kept postponing the date. It was planning to close in September 2009 but now pushed back to December 2009. It's due to refurbishment of the London Bridge itself. Shunt is looking for other venues at the meantime, it'll still carry on but won't be at London Bridge Vault. If you haven't been. GO before it's too late!!

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chrisp

Going underground 18th August 2008

3 found this helpful

An extraordinary place, like stepping into a Jack-the-Ripper film set, only with alcohol and burlesque dancers. Set in a good acre of sooty disused railway arches and long-forgotten brick vaults underneath London Bridge station, Shunt is a completely unique experience and well worth the effort finding it (it's almost invisible from the outside). Drinks may be nothing special, and they didn't even serve food as far as I could tell, but you can have hours of fun just wandering through the grimy urban spaces, hiding in the shadows or dancing in the spotlights. There's nowhere else like it.

kellytron

Jaw dropping excellant 24th July 2008

5 found this helpful

This place just amazed me. I couldn't think of a more perfect venue. Massive space (with hidden nooks and crannies so pick how loud/busy an area you want to be in), performance, live music, art, pinball machines, cheap booze and even a truck with chairs on the tray to sit in. I actually passed about 30minutes pretending to drive this truck and honking the pretend horn - but this isn't compulsory although it does speak volumes about how much of the aforementioned cheap booze I may have consumed.

It's the sort of place you could take a jaded Hoxton-ite and actually get an impressed look out of them.

rogoff

My new favourite bar in London 14th June 2008

1 found this helpful

I first went when there was a show called Tropicana here. We went through a little door in the wall of the tube station only to find ourselves in what looked like a London Transport staff room complete with Tube staff reading The Sun. From then on, the evening just got stranger and stranger as we were led into the vaults.

Anyway, that was the show and now there's the bar. I guess it's run by the same team who put on Tropicana because it's got the same quirky feel to it with quite a lot of the theatre too.

If you're looking for something fun and different then you won't find much better than this. Great space, great place.

mazphd at 14/06/08

vaults? a floor show? and access to the sun - what fun!

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