The Social London

The Social London is a bar and music venue near Oxford Circus, in London. Its history developed from the Heavenly Sunday Social, a club night that began at the Albany pub in 1994 and later took place at Smithfields and Turnmills. The Chemical Brothers held their first London residency at the club night, where Andrew Weatherall also played. The venue opened on Little Portland Street in 1999, founded by Robin Turner, Jeff Barrett, Martin Kelly and Nick Dewey. Designed by David Adjaye and Will Russell, it has two floors and a capacity of around 200 people.

The Social has presented gigs, club nights, literary salons, art and photography exhibitions, with live performances and DJ events downstairs and a wooden, music-centred room upstairs. Its programme has brought established performers together with newer bands and DJs across a broad range of genres. Past residencies and recurring events have included Hip Hop Karaoke, The Heatwave, Huw Stephens and Faber Social. Bass music has its place too, with Benton and Loefah among the DJs who have played.

A campaign to save the venue in 2019 led to a partnership with Venue Group. The physical premises closed at the beginning of the pandemic in 2020. During that period, The Social ran after-work DJ sets online on every night apart from Sunday, and later operated an online magazine and blog featuring writing by friends, family and guest contributors.