When it comes to nightclubs, Nottingham has had its fair share of legendary spaces from - Rock City on Talbot Street to the Palais, now Pryzm, on Lower Parliament Street. Over the decades we have loved and lost many that have gone down as urban legends of their time including The Garage on St. James street and Astoria on Greyfriar Street.
However, one club, in particular, has gone down in local history for having some of rock and pop's best-known musicians grace its stage including Elton John, Rod Stewart, Stevie Wonder and Van Morrison.
The Dungeon Club on Stanford Street opened in 1964 and it became the place for Nottingham's teenagers to go to listen to new records or watch live bands perform. England was at the height of the mods and rockers subculture which saw many teenagers adopt one of the fashionable styles or the other.
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Those who were mods frequented The Dungeon Club adopting parkas, Chelsea boots and miniskirts along with short pixie cut hairstyles. There would often be the Mod trademark scooters and minis parked up and down Stanford Street as their owners went in for a dance to bands such as The Small Faces or Ike and Tina Turner or The Drifters.
The building, which is now solicitor offices near the Broad Marsh site, reveals nothing of its former life as a busy nightclub in both the 1960s and 1970s. Although there were unsuccessful attempts by a group of Dungeon Club regulars to place a blue plaque on the wall in 2019.
The small, dark venue was run by Mick Parker and it was unlicensed, which wasn't unusual at the time. Visitors could only buy soft drinks or coffee which is far cry from the nightclubs of today. Those who wanted an alcoholic drink would have to visit the nearby Royal Children's Pub or the Old Salutation Inn.
There were very few places for Nottingham's teenagers to go before the club opened with many frequenting youth clubs or dance halls such as The Sherwood Rooms or Palais Le Dance. Desperate for places to go to listen to the records they couldn't hear on mainstream radio or buy easily, hundreds would descend on the small club.
Many of the mods would meet at Market Square to wait for The Dungeon Club to open later in the day. There they would share information on house parties or any events coming up in the city. Showing off scooters outside the front of the then-not-pedestrianised council house was a huge part of the meet-ups.
The club was known for its 'all-nighter' sessions where it would open for its Saturday session before closing at midnight for an hour and reopening in the early hours of Sunday morning for guests to head back. Bands often played into the early hours along with guest DJs.
One evening, teenagers inside were given a massive shock when a double-decker bus pulled up and over a hundred policemen swarmed into the building. The police decided to raid the club looking for drugs but were shocked at the number of people inside the venue.
The lights were turned on and the music switched off as the police searched everyone inside the club along with making phone calls to the parents of underage clubbers they found inside. Those in attendance had been enjoying a performance by The Drifters which had led to the packed venue and following the raid, the doors closed before reopening in the early hours to continue the gig.
A snippet from The Evening Post in 1967 read: "Teenagers fainted because of deplorable ventilation it was said and police found there were 710 young people there when they visited the club in the early hours of Sunday, March 16. The club was licensed for 400." The Nottingham Post archive can be found in St. Ann's Library and the British Newspaper Archive online.
In a further surreal twist to the legend of the historical club, Peter Stringfellow was also a guest DJ at Dungeon Club. The nightclub owner had been running the Mojo Club in Sheffield in the 1960s before coming to Nottingham at the invitation of Mick Parker.
In an interview with the Nottingham Post, he referred to the club nights at the Dungeon as: " the best days of my life "
"Kids used to come from all over the country to the all-nighters at the Mojo, always a big following from Nottingham, and Mick said they would come back to the Dungeon and talk about me, so he asked me to come down," he recalled.
"I think, looking back, those days were the pinnacle for me. You would get these big American stars playing on small stages in little clubs like the Dungeon and the Mojo. It didn't get better than that. Artists cut records today and you never see them in little nightclubs."
"They were great days. I used to DJ at The Dungeon and afterwards Mick would take me to the Hippo Club for a steak – in those days we didn't have decent restaurants in Sheffield and never saw a steak."
The club closed in 1968 but was reopened in the early 1970s as Mario's nightclub. Marios was one of Nottingham's first LGBT+ venues and it is unclear when it closed but it was also renamed Shades and Whispers over the 1980s.
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