[title]
It’s 11pm on a Friday night and I’m walking into one of London’s most historic old cinema buildings. The last time I was here was to see Babylon’s 1920s Hollywood excess unfold on screen. This time it feels like the party has broken through and invaded the cinema itself, with me caught in the eye of the storm.
I’m greeted by the hypnotic thump of house music and excited revellers crowding the corridors of what was once the Odeon Covent Garden. In the corner is a performance artist wearing a Cheshire cat-like grin contorts themselves, while other clubbers disappear and emerge from darkness like flickering projections. I’m stone cold sober but the feeling is like being on a serious trip. It’s impossible not to get swept up in the extravagance of these surroundings.
Welcome to Lost, a new nightlife experience from an artist-led collective that’s transforming London’s disused buildings into ‘vibrant spaces of cultural experimentation’. They have taken over this storied old Odeon as their first location – albeit temporarily, the building will be demolished in the new year – with plans for a new mystery venue next year.
Lost launched in March 2025 with a special invite-only party in partnership with Duran Duran, where select individuals were sent a special visa to access the ‘lost citizenship bureau’, before being enveloped into a seductive world akin to the nightclubs of David Bowie’s The Hunger. Since then, there’s been collaborations with Mark Ronson for a book launch and Miley Cyrus for her latest album. The public opening arrived on October 25 with minimal fanfare and marketing. According to The Guardian, one in four late-night venues in the UK has closed since 2020. Lost’s mission is simple: to fight back against the erosion of independent artistic spaces and champion the arts. Judging by the queue snaking around the building and down the street, it’s off to a strong start.
With phones sealed in pouches upon arrival, there’s an intense mystique around just what goes on inside this old Odeon’s walls. Entering the building is like sneaking into a 1930s speakeasy – stylish clubbers filling hallways dimly lit by antique lamps. The whole building echoes with the faint heartbeat of house and techno calling to you from rooms that could be several feet away or deep within the venue itself.
Lost’s layout encourages exploration, with tiny rooms-within-rooms where DJs play funky tracks and small crowds gather around a performance artist. It’s a hedonistic labyrinth where you don’t know what’s around the next corner and the party doesn’t stop until 6am. Most of the old Odeon cinema screens have been stripped of their seats and converted into eclectic dance floors with DJs serenading you from up high. Two cinema screens do remain, though: the Lost Theatre and the Lost Cinema.
In the Lost Cinema, I see clubbers sitting down to David Cronenberg’s Crash, the lurid midnight movie programmed for tonight. Other nights have seen Gasper Noé’s Climax, Harmony Korine’s Spring Breakers, Alejandro Jodorowsky’s The Holy Mountain, Nymphomaniac Vol I and II, and many more. Cinema etiquette is surprisingly respectful given the wild party vibe that emanates throughout the venue – although the staff who occasionally patrol the screen suggest that there are some things you can’t get away with. The Lost Cinema proved to be one of the most bustling rooms, with hundreds of patrons adorning the stalls, drinking and, for a few illicit folk, smoking inside makes you feel like you’ve time-travelled back to the 1970s.
You've got a cinema, you’ve got a club, you could be here all night
There’s a communal vibe here that almost catches you off-guard: strangers talking to one another like old friends, drinks being bought, favourite movies discussed, music and memories chatted about. ‘You've got a cinema, you’ve got a club, you could be here all night,’ one clubber tells me. ‘I don’t think you can say anything bad about this place.’ Another reveller shared his disbelief at what Lost has been able to achieve. ‘I’ve been clubbing my whole life and I’ve never seen something like this.’
A visual artist, DJ and programme director for arts venue Anomalous Space, Tiffany Ho heard about Lost from a film director friend. ‘It’s so different from anything else in the city,’ she enthuses. ‘It's not just like a club, it’s a whole multimedia experience. It all feels so hedonistic and free.’
‘Hedonistic and free’ feels like the perfect phrase to summarise Lost. There are the risqué elements to the experience glimpsed and heard in the latex-wall lined, crimson light-bathed unisex bathroom known only as ‘The Powder Room’. There are live performances that take in music unpredictable performance art and more.
But no matter which room you find yourself drawn to, it’s like stepping into the perfect club night from the best movie you’ve ever seen. Here, it feels like the collective is just warming up. This could be the beginning of an almighty comeback for London’s nightlife. For now, we’ll have to wait and see where to get Lost next.
Head to the Lost website for news of upcoming parties
Letterboxd love: inside the new dating club for where movie lovers find a soul mate.
The best Christmas cinema screenings in London this month.