V&A exhibition featuring over 50 lost music venues to open in May

An exhibition featuring lost music venues and performance spaces from the 1980s to 2010s is opening at the Victoria & Albert Museum. ‘Lost Music Venues’ opens at the South Kensington art museum on Saturday 30th May.

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A collaboration with Music Venue Trust, the display comprises around 50 lost spaces spanning more than three decades. Music Venue Trust previously welcomed the public to contribute artefacts from 1988-2025 towards the exhibition, from posters, footage, and equipment to signage, flooring, and setlists from independent clubs and venues. ‘Lost Music Venues’ has been described by MVT as celebrating music venues as “centres of creativity, shining a light on both their cultural contribution and the challenges they face as a sector.”

Display highlights on the V&A’s website include a collage of press cuttings, tickets and photographs relating to the Rainbow Theatre in London during the 1970s and 80s; photos by Gregory Nolan capturing open mics and club nights in the mid-noughties; and letraset dry transfer used as flyers for the club Plastic People in 1998. Tickets are available for free on the V&A’s website. 

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Header image: White Heat indie night at Madame Jojo's, photographed by Gregory Nolan / Credit: V&A