We ask Birmingham: What’s your favourite city nightclub - past or present?

Birmingham’s nightlife scene often gets a bad rap but a lot of people out there would, of course, disagree. Over the years there have been some iconic venues come and go, and the landscape continues to expand. I’m here to ask Brummies their favourite hotspots both past and present.

Jacob says: “So at Uni I always loved Lab11. And I still like going there now and again for the odd rave. Even though it’s in Digbeth - and there’s that stigma around Digbeth being a bit dodgy and everything - I’ve never had any problems going there. We’ve always had a great time there.

“Bouncers haven’t ever been too, you know, power hungry chucking you out or anything like that. So it’s just a good venue really, they’ve got four or five rooms. It’s great.”

Rachel says: “Nice. I’m gonna say it’s Tonight Josephine. Not only because it’s pink, and pink’s my favourite colour, but the DJ - every time we go he plays to my group’s vibe. So we’ve literally had a good time every single time we’ve been there.

“So definitely Tonight Josephine. And it’s in a good location as well. It’s literally right opposite New Street Station, so easy to get to.”

Steph says: “It used to be Gatecrasher, I’d say. If you’re gonna go from years ago I’d say Gatrecrasher, but then you’d get lost in there because it was like four floors. I don’t really know many of the new clubs up here anymore but a lot of people go to Digbeth now - it’s more the brunches and stuff. So I think that’s become more popular hasn’t it. In the daytimes and stuff - like Rainbow.”

Ben says: “Okay, I’m trying to think of a regular nightclub that I went to! Perhaps what I could say instead of a regular nightclub - I do remember going to Snobs a few times when I first moved to Birmingham in the early 90s.

“But perhaps my regular night slot entertainment location might have been the Supersonic night. So I’m a big fan of Supersonic music festivals and I was almost religiously attending their club nights as often as I could through the 2000s.”

Sharon says: “I think particularly what’s been really good about Birmingham is - and I’ll probably get shut down for this by the younger people, such as my daughter - I think there’s quite a lot of I pop up type clubs, not sure what they are.

“One good one is I think Hockley Social Club is one that I’ve been to, and places in Digbeth - Custard Factory. I think those venues are quite nice, and that those bring life to the city because it’s a mixture of music, and live music and drinking and socialising.

“So I think that’s kind of good - and those venues are good - because you’ve got different types of music and different types of people. So I think that the emergence of that in the city centre from what I’ve seen is quite good. As to places like Broad Street. Jury’s out on that! I can’t comment on that because it’s not somewhere that’s for me, really!”