R.I.P. London’s Astoria

Travel Blog  •  Eva Holland  •  01.14.09 | 10:14 AM ET

Photo by Sheep purple via Flickr (Creative Commons)

The legendary London venue is closing down this week to make way for a new rail line. The Astoria and its annex, Astoria 2, have hosted everyone from Nirvana and David Bowie to Iggy Pop and Eminem over the years.

“People tend to get misty-eyed about the demise of historic dives, and in this sense the Astoria does not disappoint,” Ian Winwood writes in the Guardian. “The security people can be difficult, the beer is always too warm and if it weren’t for the musicians on stage the loudest sound in the room would be people’s feet un-sticking themselves from the floor. ... The Astoria is inconvenient and exciting, just like London itself.”


Eva Holland is a contributor to the World Hum blog. She is also a contributing editor at the Matador Network and at Not Coming to a Theater Near You, and a regular contributor to the Ottawa Citizen. Based in Ottawa, Canada, she loves to write about travel, history, sports, and culture high or low.


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