XOYO London — The Full Honest Guide

XOYO is back. Not just open — actually back. New owners, a full two-month refurbishment, a recalibrated Void soundsystem, and the kind of energy that Shoreditch has been missing for a few years. If you haven't been since 2022, you're essentially walking into a different club. Here's everything you need to know.

What Is XOYO?

XOYO opened in 2010 in a converted print works on Cowper Street, a short walk from Old Street station. Within a few years it had become one of the most respected club spaces in the country — residencies from Bicep, The Blessed Madonna, Honey Dijon, Goldie, Skream, Andy C, Erol Alkan. The kind of lineup that doesn't happen at venues that aren't genuinely something. For a long stretch it was the benchmark for what a London club should feel like.

Then it drifted. The ownership changed hands twice and by the mid-2020s the consensus was that XOYO had gone stale — the rooms needed work, the bookings had lost their edge, and the space felt like it was running on a reputation it wasn't earning anymore. That changed in late 2025 when Kirk Allen, the man behind The Warehouse in Leeds, took it on under new company Propaganda Independent Venues. Two months of renovations later, it reopened on 31st January 2026.

The Two Rooms

The venue runs across two floors and two distinct rooms, each with a different feel. Understanding which one you're going to matters.

The Basement is the main event. This is the room that built XOYO's name. It's just had its Void soundsystem fully recalibrated and expanded — more clarity, more power, more consistency across the whole floor. The production overhaul added 350 metres of pixel-tube lighting, six custom-built LED cubes overhead, and a redesigned DJ booth and stage layout. New owner Kirk Allen has described what he wants the room to feel like as a thunderstorm, with strobes and smoke backing up the light show. It's a serious dancefloor for serious music.

Upstairs is The Jungle — what used to be Room 2, now properly renamed and redesigned. The curtains are gone, the seating layout has been opened up for more space, and the walls are now lined with foliage and LED screens. The sound system has been upgraded too. There's also a giant disco ball greeting you on entry and neon lighting inspired by Tokyo back alleys. It's the warmer, more sociable room when you need a break from the basement's intensity.

The Music Policy

XOYO's reputation was always built on booking quality over genre. House, techno, drum and bass, disco — whatever was worth hearing. That approach hasn't changed. The signature XOYO Loves night continues on Saturdays, pulling artists like Skream, Horse Meat Disco and Dimitri from Paris for the melodic and disco end of the spectrum. Student nights run midweek. Fridays are typically Feel It with a mix of in-house and external promoters rounding out the weekends. There's also a live music calendar running through the week for those who want something beyond DJ sets.

The quarterly residency format — where a single DJ curates several consecutive Fridays — is one of XOYO's best ideas and it's still going. When it works, it builds something rare: a crowd that's genuinely invested in a sound, not just a one-off night.

Getting In

Buy tickets in advance. Almost everything sells out, especially on Fridays and Saturdays, and door prices are higher when they're even available. The website is the best place to check upcoming events and presale links. Entry typically runs £5 to £30 depending on the act — major bookings sit at the top of that range, regular nights at the bottom. There's no dress code to stress about; XOYO has always been come-as-you-are as long as you're there for the music.

Who Goes There

The crowd at XOYO has always been part of what makes it work. It's not a venue where you get a random mix of people who just ended up there. The booking policy attracts people who actually care about what's on. You'll get regulars who've been going since the early days, people who specifically follow certain artists, and a decent tourist contingent who planned their London weekend around a specific night. Midweek is younger and studenty, which is fine. Weekends in the Basement for a proper booking pull a more experienced crowd who know what they're there for. That energy carries onto the dancefloor in a way that's hard to manufacture.

It's also worth saying the venue doesn't feel exclusive or difficult. Security is professional and the queue moves. There's no ridiculous door policy and the staff inside are decent. For a central London club of this reputation it's surprisingly unpretentious.

Getting There

Old Street is your station. It's about an eight minute walk from the roundabout. Head east on Old Street and turn left onto Cowper Street. You can't miss it. Ubers and cabs drop right outside. Don't bother with a car, this is Shoreditch. The Overground runs through the night at weekends so getting home after 3am is manageable without paying surge prices. Worth knowing before you go out so you're not making panicked decisions at 4am.

Should You Go?

If you've been to XOYO before and it didn't quite live up to what you'd heard about it — go again. The refurbishment is genuine. The basement in particular sounds the way it should: the Void system at proper power in a room that's been designed around it is a different experience to what the venue was offering before. The Jungle upstairs gives you somewhere to reset without leaving.

If you've never been, pick a night with an artist you actually care about. XOYO at its best is a room where the music is the whole point. The new ownership seems to understand that, and the early programming choices back it up. It's one of those venues where if you get the right night, you'll still be talking about it six months later.