Ironworks Opens: London Gets a New Dancefloor Instead of More Flats

The wake is over...

Ever since Printworks shut, London's ravers have wandered the city like Victorian widows, clutching old wristbands and telling anyone who'd listen that nothing would ever be the same. On Saturday 3 October, on a stretch of the Royal Docks previously known only to film crews and people who'd got off the cable car at the wrong end, the mourning period officially ended. Ironworks is open. Jamie Jones christened it. And I regret to inform the professionally cynical that it is very good.

I went with low expectations. Big venues often miss the mark: too much space, and a soundsystem that can't fill it. I had half written the obituary on the way there, and had to bin it. A warehouse that knows its own size

Ironworks sits on the Thames directly across the water from the O2, with the Royal Docks skyline behind it and the cable car gliding overhead. The site covers more than 150,000 sq ft of indoor and outdoor space, holds 7,000 people and until now sat behind closed doors as a film and television location.

The surprise is how small it feels. The layout is sensible, you never lose time walking around, and the main room is intimate enough to hold a proper vibe. The lights and the soundsystem both delivered, with production built around the building instead of dropped into it.

The venue is a new collaboration between PROJEKT, the cultural placemaking group whose projects include The Cause and The Factory, and LWE, the promoter that pioneered London's big daytime events. Markets, outdoor cinema and street food are planned for the wider site. In a city more used to losing venues than gaining them, that is worth celebrating.

Voyager: ten hours, two Jamie Joneses

Jamie Jones chose opening day to launch Voyager, his new series: ten hours, noon until 10pm, tracing where his sound came from and where it is heading. Florentia b2b Goosey opened for the new generation of UK house, followed by Chicago great Chez Damier b2b Manda Moor.

At 3pm Jones played a dedicated 2010-era set, revisiting the east London parties that defined him and Hot Creations. Nostalgia is only grief with a better soundtrack, and for ninety minutes the room grieved beautifully, mostly for its own knees.

It was not all old school. Adam Ten followed, and then Seth Troxler, a friend and collaborator of Jones for more than 15 years, played a blinding set of mostly new music. Anyone who had come only for the classics was dragged, politely, into the present.

The finale was the Jamie Jones Live Experience, a hybrid live and DJ set with Ali Love, Camden Cox, Constance Power and Kah-Lo performing their vocals in person. Jones ended the night by dropping 'Hungry for the Power', one last nod to the era the day set out to honour. Old faces, good burgers and one unforgivable omission

A lot of the old faces came out to support, and seeing them brought back the nostalgia and the memories. Everyone had aged exactly as much as I have, and had the decency not to mention it.

It was hard to find a negative. The only one we managed: the bar sold no prosecco, and we were thoroughly disappointed. Inquiries are ongoing. The food made up for it. The chicken burger and chips from Nanny Bill's hit the spot at the end of the night. What's next, if you can get in

The verdict

Ironworks is an excellent venue and a welcome addition to London's cultural offering. It is big without being overbearing and exactly the right size to get a party started, and Jamie Jones gave it the opening it deserved. You may now stop grieving. Just bring your own prosecco.