Oxford club and live music venue The Cellar has closed its doors for the final time.
"After crunching the numbers, a thousand times over, the Hopkins family, who have run the independent music venue for nearly 40 years, have sadly come to conclusion that they cannot continue," said venue manager Tim Hopkins in a Facebook post.
The venue’s final day open was on Monday (March 11), thought its future had been uncertain since 2017 when the landlords had put forward their intentions to turn the space into a shop. That plan ultimately came to nothing but the introduction of new fire safety regulations and the need for a new fire exit meant that the capacity was ultimately reduced from 150 to 60 last year.
Money was raised to cover the cost of those new regulations via a crowdfunding campaign, but it was ultimately not enough to secure the venue’s future. The money raised through that campaign will be returned to those who donated.
"We are grateful to the landlords for recognising the cultural importance of the venue, and we hope that we have saved this space from becoming a store room," Hopkins’ post continued. "Moreover, we hope that the space, in some shape or form, will continue as a live music venue. Over 2000 people donated to the Cellar Forever campaign, showing that the people of Oxford really care about what The Cellar stands for, and the values it embodies – independence, individuality and creativity."
Over the years, the small venue has hosted a number of DJs such as Ben UFO, Objekt, DJ Sprinkles, Daniel Avery, Batu, Avalon Emerson, Lena Willikens and many more.
