Exclusive: Salford Council is investigating the White Hotel
'We want little venues like that, we just want them to be run properly'
Dear readers — Bank Holiday weekend fast approaches! How are you planning to make the most of it? Thousands of people from around the north west, and indeed the country, will be pouring into the Gay Village for Manchester Pride. And there’s much more than just the main events on — check out our weekend to-do list below for a couple of the many alternative Pride celebrations taking place around town.
Some of those events include a lineup of gigs at the White Hotel, the endlessly creative Salford nightclub. As Mollie reports in today’s exclusive story, the iconic venue could be facing some complications due to a dispute involving planning permissions, as well as the development of its once-derelict but evolving neighbourhood. What does this all mean for the future of the legendary nightclub?
Read on to find out. But first, your Mill Briefing.
Your Mill briefing
📸 Conservative councillors in Salford have been targeted with doctored images and social media posts, reports the MEN. Said posts accuse councillors of attending far-right rallies and expressing controversial views online. One image of Councillor Les Turner and his wife holding an England flag was used to suggest they had taken part in far-right protests. It is believed the posts are coming from within Salford’s Tory association. Facebook posts apparently made by another Tory councillor, Bob Clarke, were also circulated showing him using racist and Islamaphobic language; they are also understood to be fake.
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🌲 The shortlist has been announced for the prestigious Tree of the Year award. Shortlisted candidates include a 1,200-year-old oak in Marton, Cheshire, the oldest on the list. The winner will be decided by an online public poll, and go on to compete in European Tree of the Year in 2025.
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Exclusive: Salford Council is investigating the White Hotel
By Mollie Simpson
The creative minds behind the White Hotel, the world-famous nightclub run out of a garage in a vast post-industrial area of Salford, never necessarily intended to run a successful business. “TWH doesn’t even pretend it’s not for profit,” artistic director Austin Collings said in an interview with VICE in 2017. “We are purposefully sinking ourselves into debt and destruction.”
Perhaps it’s no wonder, then, that seven years later the club finds itself in some trouble.
Last week, an anonymous source reached out to let me know our recent reporting on the nightlife industry contained an omission: a much-loved music venue facing new complications. The source claimed that the White Hotel might get shut down, directing me to Salford Council’s online planning portal. What I found was surprising; from the point of view of planning law, the White Hotel is a garage — which could undermine its ability to run as a nightclub.
The nightclub has hosted some of the biggest DJs in the world from its base at Unit 1 Dickinson Street. After opening on New Year’s Eve in 2015, the venue quickly amassed an unusually large profile for a tiny nightclub run out of a garage in a derelict bit of town. Within three years of opening, Creative Tourist described it as “one of the most exciting clubs/gig venues the North West has to offer”, and its events consistently sold out on the ticketing platform Resident Advisor. Best known for experimental music and absurd performance art pieces, past shows have included a reenactment of the funeral of Princess Diana in 2018, soundtracked by a Mariachi band. More recently, the White Hotel has been celebrated for its role in launching the careers of many successful music acts. In May this year, the Guardian published a long list of artists including Space Afrika, Blackhaine, Sockethead, Anz and Indiana whose rise in the industry is at least partly due to “the nurturing influence of The White Hotel”.
The venue began its life as a club named Fuhrer Bunker in Unit 3 Dickinson Street. A 2012 YouTube video shows the indie rock band Savages performing a moody, intense gig there against a backdrop of visual art. In 2013, Fuhrer Bunker changed its name to The Bunker, which lasted for a few years, and at some point around 2016, the club moved into Unit 1 and changed its name to the White Hotel.
The name change coincided with attempts to formalise operations. On 27 January 2016, The White Hotel Ltd was established as a company, with Benjamin Ward named as its sole director. In 2018, the owners submitted a planning application to Salford Council for a change of use from B1 (a vacant car garage) to D1 and D2 — for a non-residential institution and assembly and leisure, the planning permission required for a venue to put on creative arts, performance and club nights. The status of the application is listed as “closed”. While it’s uncertain what exactly happened, it seems as though the owners quietly withdrew it themselves.
For whatever reason, complainants have alleged that the White Hotel is currently operating without the correct planning permission in place, and Salford Council confirmed it has launched an investigation into the nightclub: “The council has received a complaint and the Planning Enforcement Team are investigating. At this stage it is inappropriate to comment further.”
When I reached out to the White Hotel about this investigation, someone calling themselves The Attorney responded with a short statement in large Comic Sans font. “In answer to your questions, we have a good working relationship with the council and confirm we operate in accordance with all necessary legal requirements,” they wrote. “There’s been cultural activity and events in this building for some 20 years, with the core TWH team involved for well over a decade.”
The Attorney also pushed back at my suggestion that the council’s investigation could sound the “death knell” for the nightclub. “Death knells? On the contrary, we’ve got new projects afoot working across a new medium.” It’s unclear whatever this mysterious new medium is; The Attorney never responded to my follow up questions.
The accusation that The White Hotel has been operating without the correct planning permission for the last eight years seems to have come from two disgruntled complainants, who asked not to be named in this story. One — our original tipster — mentioned being opposed to “the increasing commercialisation of the place”. The other, described by the former as “complainer-in-chief”, replied to my first email with enthusiasm, and told me: “Yes I made a complaint to Planning authorities. I don't regret anything.”
A page on the council’s website details which actions the planning enforcement team will take if it finds a venue has been operating without the correct planning permission. If the White Hotel is to take Salford Council at its word, the owners could assume they would have to apply for retrospective permission. It’s also possible that the White Hotel may face no action, as the council’s website says “if the harm resulting from the breach of planning control is ‘minor', then no action may be justified”. In other words: the club could be in the clear.
If the White Hotel is forced to apply for retrospective planning permission going back eight years, however, the costs would be extortionate: potentially into the tens of thousands of pounds. It’s certainly possible that the White Hotel could fundraise to cover the fees, or that it might successfully avoid the issue entirely. We have heard there have been attempts by the current owners to approach buyers who might want to take over the brand and continue club nights elsewhere, but no responses have been forthcoming. When I asked about rumours that the White Hotel might be seeking new ownership, their representative didn’t specifically deny this, instead emphasising their ongoing projects in that mysterious “new medium.”
The stakes here feel high. While most of the club’s attendees are drawn to the line-ups (Kelly Lee Owens, Japanese Breakfast, the Ishmael Ensemble and Jamie xx have all played at the venue), the White Hotel is also celebrated as an inclusive and welcoming environment. When I was working on a story about safe spaces for trans people in Greater Manchester last year, I spoke to Morgan, a trans woman who praised the White Hotel as somewhere where she felt like she could have fun without feeling anxious about being watched or judged.
Artists who’ve played there describe similarly positive experiences. “The White Hotel has helped me a lot,” the artist Blackhaine told The Face Magazine. “I can do what I want there, sets that I couldn’t do in London. The crowd in there has allowed me to develop my own sound, and I just keep pushing forward.” A pause. “Really, me and The White Hotel is the best relationship I’ve developed.” Speaking to the Guardian, Emma Thompson, co-director of From The Other, the team behind Sounds from the Other City and Fat Out Festival, emphasised that the White Hotel had created an atmosphere for different kinds of new music to grow: “It’s a really important space.”
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