Ministry of Sound
103 Gaunt Street
London SE1 6DP
Tel: +44 (0)870 060 0010
Fax: +44 (0)20 7403 5348
arnie@ministryofsound.com
Ministry of Sound is located near the Elephant and Castle tube station, a dodgy neighbourhood with very few decent bars nearby. Any pre-clubbing cocktails should definitely be consumed outside the vicinity of Elephant and Castle.In hindsight, I should have heeded this as an omen, but I remained optimistic.
I visited on a Friday night in hopes to experience clubbing bliss with London’s hottest movers and shakers. This popular nightclub/ global empire is world renowned for featuring some of the best DJs on the planet, so I was eager to discover first-hand what the hype was all about.
The club opens at 11:00, so I arrived at 11:30 in hopes that I would arrive before the masses but alas, the queue was already winding down the street. The security here is second-to-none. My bag and I were both thoroughly searched before I was allowed entry. A bit of a nuisance, but also reassuring as you don’t have to worry about potential armed assault from other revellers.
The cover is a bit steep at £15.00, but I figured that they had to pay for their extensive marketing somehow. Once inside, I wasn’t that impressed. The club was far smaller than I had anticipated, the staff members were unfriendly and the drink prices were ridiculous (a double Jack and Coke was $8.00)!
I wandered upstairs to get a birds-eye view of the dance floor below. I noticed that there was a VIP area to my left, so I sauntered over to the bouncer to inquire about entry. He informed me that this privilege was available for a mere £80! Talk about highway robbery. The exorbitant fee would have been justified if there were acrobats dangling from the ceiling, pole dancers on the table and champagne flowing like water, but alas none of this fabulousness was present.
Bored upstairs, I trotted back downstairs to explore the other dance room, which was featuring hard house music. The sound system was blaring almost to the point of distortion and this room was also nowhere near capacity, and therefore, was also disappointing.
My friend and I grew tired of this overpriced, over-inflated club within a few hours and decided to call it a night early, although we could have danced until 6 AM had we so desired. One would need very deep pockets and low expectations to party all night here. Sadly, the highlight of the evening for me was helping myself to the free Ministry of Sound pins at the door only so I could say “been there, done that.”
