The Night Tube could transform London clubbing

However, Jane Fitz, DJ and co-founder of the Night Moves party, worries that it may be too late for London, and an increase in the city’s transport links will merely accelerate harmful gentrification. “I can't see the march of property developers slacking off any time soon,” she says. When the notion of untapped areas becoming vibrant new hubs of night-time activity is raised, she highlights the potential negatives of this situation. “Anywhere that is a centre becomes a target. It's easy to be policed, it's easy to be tainted by bad rep, it's easy to get abused by people who just go to that area just to get fucked, which is what has happened outside my front door for the past eight years,” she counters, adding that “you could do whatever you wanted in Hackney 14 years ago and now you can't because every former industrial spot is getting razed to the ground and surrounded by ‘design-built luxury apartments’.”

Jane makes an important point. We can’t solely rely on a transport system to fix London’s faltering club scene, but the positives it brings should serve as a significant boost in the fight for greater respect and support of the night-time industry. Alan Miller, chairman of the Night Time Industries Association (NTIA), is someone who has been leading the campaign for central and local government to cooperate more closely with nightlife and not see it as a problematic feature of the economy. He believes that the Night Tube “will have an enormously beneficial impact on all sorts of business, culture, opportunity, freedom of movement”, and that this can be used as an impetus in changing the way councils think, but it also requires people to speak up and take a more robust approach in supporting nightlife. “That's why we've launched Night Life Matters,” he says, “often councillors hear from one or two people that may complain. They don't hear from the hundreds of thousands, the millions of people that love going out every week. We want them to sign a petition that goes in to local councillors and MPs so they can have their voices heard.

It’s easy to be disheartened by club closures, but there’s life left in London yet and the scene will only improve if strong action is taken to support it, especially with the positive shine the Night Tube looks set to bring. This could then see London soon catch up with more dynamic European cities and become a clubbing hotspot. Or even go beyond that, as Alan Miller says: “I think it can supersede any city in the world. We have got better infrastructure, we have got more possible variety and opportunities, we have a huge amount of talent. It's all in our choice. It's all in our hands.”

Patrick Hinton is Mixmag's Digital Intern. Follow him on Twitter

Eliot Wyatt is a freelance illustrator based in Bristol. Visit his website