Clubbing Culture in Islington, 1986-1995

This is the first book to map and celebrate the overlooked history of producers, promoters and DJs from Islington that contributed to the acid house and rave scene as it developed in derelict spaces in the borough in the late 1980s, and how this paved the way for the house and jungle scenes that dominated Islington clubs during the 1990s. Blending oral history interviews with contemporaneous reports in the style press, the music press, local and national newspapers, and archival documents stored at the Islington Local History Centre, this book sheds new light upon key clubs, the music, cultural identities, and fashions. The book presents unpublished eyewitness accounts by people from Islington’s council estates that contributed to these scenes to unravel the complex and hitherto poorly understood interrelationship between gang culture, subculture and localised club culture. It argues that the backlash to the perceived unsavoury nature of clubbers and promoters, combined with the onslaught of gentrification in the borough in the late 1990s, led to the venues being closed down, and to this vital moment in the history of UK popular culture being brought to an end.

Ray Kinsella is an academic researcher and writer who co-founded the Subculture Interest Group at the University of the Arts London, UK. His previous book, The Bebop Scene in London's Soho, 1945-1950: Post-war Britain's First Youth Subculture, was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2022.