IKEA Will Become London's Newest Warehouse Venue

A massive, deserted IKEA store in the London suburb of Tottenham will be converted into the city’s newest warehouse venue, Drumsheds.

From flat-packed furniture galore to raves, Drumsheds promises to be the next-largest music venue in London – it’s bigger than Alexandra Palace (or Ally Pally), which has a 10,250-capacity, and Wembley Arena, which can take 12,500 people. Drumsheds will hold up to 15,000 keen punters.

Drumsheds comes from the minds behind the London spaces like the now-closed Printworks and new venues The Beams, Depot Mayfield in Manchester, and more. Broadwick, the operator behind all those warehouse venues, will open Drumsheds this September.

As Dazed Digital reports, Printworks closed in April 2022 despite devoted community support and a Change.org petition decrying the plans to turn a modern warehouse music venue into offices. Broadwick intends to reopen the “superclub” in 2026.

The Tottenham venue is a 608,000 sq ft building that Broadwick promises will provide “a carefully curated programme of music, arts, culture and community”, per Dazed Digital.

Broadwick’s director of strategy, Simeon Aldred, added, “We want Drumsheds, like all the spaces we create, to be new centres of cultural gravity that provide the basis for human connection. A connection that people crave now more than ever.”

According to a statement shared by NME, Drumsheds will be “more impactful than anything London has seen”, as Broadwick aims to “inspire, connect and create massive impact through music, culture and space”.

The new multi-use music venue will also utilise some equipment left from IKEA’s heyday, including “old lift shafts, loading bays, sprawling floors and machinery,” per NME.

The Guardian reports that the IKEA opened in 2005 and stopped trading in August 2022 after announcing earlier last year that the store would close down, blaming “changing shopping behaviours” like online shopping.

Drumsheds differs from the space of the same name Broadwick opened earlier and hosted the 2019 Field Day music festival.

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— Drumsheds (@drumsheds) July 16, 2023