Forced to move from it’s home of 20 years, the Vortex jazz club has landed on its feet, writes Richard Hodkinson

Oliver Weindling and David Mossman outside the new venue

WHEN a previously down-at-heel area suddenly becomes fashionable, the first things to go are often those amenities that made the locale desirable in the first place.
A case in point is Stoke Newington’s venerable Vortex Jazz Club – for 20 years one of the capital’s most important and best loved venues for jazz, but recently kicked out of its premises by a landlord with dollar signs flashing before his eyes.
It could have ended badly, with the demise of another characterful institution, but instead the Vortex is looking forward to a bright future at the heart of a vibrant arts scene.
Forced to leave its homely base on Stoke Newington Church Street, the Vortex will soon re-open in a brand-new landmark building in the redevelopment area of Gillett Square, right on Islington’s eastern border.
This corner of the borough, where Islington’s leafy streets nuzzle up against gritty Dalston, is an area of growing prominence to the capital’s arts scene.
The excellent Rio Cinema is just around the corner with the increasingly important Arcola Theatre five minutes’ walk away. Now the Vortex in its glow-in-the-dark high-tech premises will bring live music to the area every night of the week.
David Mossman, the venue’s music programmer, was one of the team that originally set up the Vortex and is a member of the dedicated group that has been fighting its closure.
He is clearly excited that the enforced move has put the club in such an enviable position. He said: “It’s amazing what’s going on in this little area. There’s no doubt this position will be better for us than Church Street, marvellous though the old place was.”
The Vortex was only founded at all as a result of chance, as Mr Mossman recalls: “We wanted to open an art gallery initially. At the time Stoke Newington was bedsit land. Every other shop on Church Street sold second-hand cookers, but there were a lot of artists working in the area, so when we found the space we started exhibiting paintings. The problem was we couldn’t persuade the critics to leave Cork Street and come all the way up to Stoke Newington, and we started falling behind with the rent.
“So we took advantage of the spit ‘n’ sawdust atmosphere of the place and opened the Vortex.”
Quickly establishing itself among the jazz fraternity, the club earned a recognition beyond what could be expected of a small venue well off the traditional jazz map.
Now the club has the opportunity to reach a wider audience, as Mr Mossman recognises. He said: “There are 86 languages spoken in this area – its diversity is incredible – and jazz is a central part of the musical life of so many of the groups who live here. We will be able to involve the community in activities at the new club and call on these different cultures. Really, there couldn’t be a better place or time to run a jazz club than in Dalston right now.”
The Vortex has taken possession of two floors of the spectacular new £1 million Dalston Culture House, which will also be home to arts-based companies. An entertainment license has just been granted allowing the club to open the second week of May.
Vortex director Oliver Weindling says the club’s sleek premises could hardly be more different from those it is leaving.
He said: “All these huge windows mean we have an ‘active frontage’, apparently. People can see what is going on – it makes us more accessible.”
Owners of the building, Hackney Council, has an ambition to establish the development as the Covent Garden of the area. Transport links to Dalston mean the Vortex is now easily accessible to jazz lovers from all over north London, and the long-promised East London Line Tube extension will improve the situation further.

• The Vortex is at Dalston Culture House, Gillett Street, N16. Box office 0207 690 6661.