Scala

Meh! If they can get more toilets, better bars, with more barmen that are actually helpful then there’s a possibility that a night out here would work well. There is an issue with the aircon in the top level room as at one point I thought I was in a sauna rather than a club. Sound system is good and love the many stairs leading to the rooms which can give you a break from the crowded dance floors.

I’ve been to a fair few gigs here in my time and having experience of a lot of London gig venues, this is one of my favourites.
The security are some of the nicest I’ve come across. At Scala the staff look through your bag, do a quick pat down search and if you look young ask for ID. Unlike other venues, where if you have food or drink you have to put it in the bin, Scala use a cloakroom system for items you can’t take in. At the door they give you a ticket so you can collect your food on the way out — for free. Last time I went I didn’t have my ID so they gave me a green wristband, but they were very lax and said it didn’t matter because I had my friend to buy me drinks anyway.
The venue itself is simple — walk up some stairs and there’s the bar, cloakroom and merch area. Go through some doors and you’re in the main stage area. Toilets are right at the top of the building and are impressively clean for a gig venue.
What I love is that the stage area has a platform running round the edges and a lowered pit in the centre. This means that whether you’re into moshing, dancing or just appreciating the sweet sound you can find an area to stand. Usually I go in the lowered floor and dance about but most recently I stood on one of the raised areas. Where I was stood just happened to be next to the stage door so I had the band standing right behind me watching the support acts. Such a friendly and intimate vibe.
I haven’t yet been to a club night here but for live music this venue is brilliant.

I love Scala it is quite different from other venues, there is an endless amount of corridors, stairs and rooms, everything is very dark & looks amazing in the low lighting they use.
I been here for a couple of boxing events & one music venue and i have to say every time they did a great job with the sound & lights. The location makes it excellent for a night out as it is only 2 minutes from kings cross underground, so i am definitely going back to check out their normal nightclub nights.
The only major issue is that you have to queue outside which is awful if it is cold.

This place has a great vibe, but you need to know what you’re getting yourself into. Went with a good mate of mine on a Saturday night to meet up with a girl he met online. Though we never ended up finding her, both of us had a blast.
Scala is first and foremost a rock & roll club /​venue. Never have I been in a place with more concentration of tattoos on both guys and girls outside of a tattoo parlor. I think I saw more girls with sleeve tattoos inside than all of London combined outside of the venue. I enjoyed it quite a bit.
The place itself is a maze with lots of stairways and corridors and rooms with windows. I remember being at the standing area of the stage and seeing two rooms that I wanted to go to. I went for it, and after 4 – 5 flights of stairs, I was at another bar within the venue I had never seen before! It is a lot of fun running around getting lost in there, especially when you are a bit buzzed.
The drinks are cheap and strong, a JD and coke setting you back less than half of what it would cost at any other club. Music was a bit heavy for me but still enjoyable.
For me Scala is not going to be a reoccurring stomping ground, but when the stars align and I’m up for a night of rock & roll mischief, there is no substitute.

Woah Scala.
I lived in King’s Cross for a while and never knew this venue existed. But I would come back here in a heartbeat.
This is a multi-​level spot to see shows, and it’s just what I want from an event. It’s intimate, the sound is great, you can see the stage from multiple vantage points and it’s a lot of fun.
Loved the stage area on the first floor — big, open, great for dancing or rocking out, but then a raised platform in the back for just watching it all go down. There’s also a floor above with a railing looking down on the show for even more. It was happy to be in the crowd and then out of the crowd when I wanted. And the sound was amazing — perfect in the stage area, non-​existent in the bar area so you could go and collect your thoughts if you needed to. Win.
Couple issues. To get in you have to Queue outside, which sucks in the cold, but worth it when you make it through the door. Then again, once you’re inside, coat check is a nightmare. You have to queue down a hallway, then double back towards the closet. Even just getting into the queue in the first part was miserable.
But lucky enough there’s a bar right next to it, so you go right from the frustrating to drinking.
I’d come back here to see a show again any time. No question.

Based on my experience this place is poorly organised.
Big event taking place at the Scala. You buy early bird tickets. You turn up an hour after doors open and wait an hour and a half in the coldest evening of the year to be let in. Even though you have tickets, you get man handled through the doors. You don’t even get searched so you wonder what all the fuss was about. You see the queues for the cloakrooms and toilets so you carry your bag and coat around. The place packs up quickly and it’s so busy and crammed you can’t be bothered to go to the bar again after you’ve managed to get your first drink. It’s soo busy, and you’ve been waiting so long for everything you leave never to return.
Get better/​more bouncers, bar staff, toilet cleaners, cloakroom attendance, everything.

Yay! What a great venue! Tonight was my first visit to Scala, and I would definitely go back. Hopefully more acts I love will play there!
Love the smaller feel. Scala is standing room only, but there are so many different levels at all sorts of angles that it’s fairly easy to avoid the floor smushiness.
The sound was excellent! Super easy to access from Kings Cross Underground. Quick and efficient coat check for £2, and the bar staff were lovely.

I have been to Scala numerous times, so figured that it’s about time to write a review. When you look at Scala from the outside it looks little promising, but once you’re inside it’s like a candy store ready to be explored. The venue has multiple levels and rooms and the sound system is pretty good. I especially like that the floor has different levels and and upstairs, so you have very good chances of being able to see well. The only things I don’t like is the bar (always a long wait) and the toilets (line is always too long). Oh and for all you smokers out there, Scala has a little dedicated smoking area.

Last night was my first night at the Scala, I’d heard so much about it growing up in the UK. I went to see a youtube rapper.
The sound system is pretty awesome and there’s a sound/​lighting team pitched right in the middle of the hall in a massive cage!
Not sure what its like on a normal club night but I think id like to check it out sometime for sure.

One of my most visited venues for gigs!
Great acoustics and two balconies in the main space that it is great to watch the shows from.

Not bad club to hear large phat tunes that were on display at the awesome DMC UK DJ finals.

As it’s a club venue, whether or not you have a good time at Scala will depend hugely on who’s night you attend, but I’ve found that there have been plenty of events worth attending at this venue over the years, including Torture Garden, White Mischief, the now defunct Popstars and many more!
Based in once-​seedy Kings Cross, it’s in a fabulously old building with some interesting quirks. Great if you enjoy the sort of club that allows you to wander from room to room in search of something a bit different each time.

Ich hatte an Halloween 2010 dasGlück in London zu sein, als Sick Of It All und Madball auf Tour waren. Die Show war selbstverständlich phänomenal und die Atmosphere im Scala ist super. Gute Aufteilung mit Empore hinten und dadurch eine gute Sicht.
Für so ein mittelgroßes Konzert kann es kaum schöner sein. Ich bin froh wenn ich irgendwann nochmal die Möglichkeit habe hinzugehen :-)

I love Scala for the same reason I love first dates: there’s buzz when the doors first open, mystery around every corner, you’re essentially in the dark and everything looks so damn sexy in low lighting… until you get frisked, which happens far too often in both cases.
There’s expensive booze, strange overpowering smells, and what could first be conceived as an illusion of smoke and mirrors, quickly morphs into a cozy and intimate evening.
I must say, they are both fantastic for putting on a show!

Why can’t all London venues be this awesome? It’s so much smaller than your Brixton Academy or your HMV Forum… which is a big win in my book.
The sound (handled by a technician inside a cage-​like apparatus on the balcony area) is great in here. And I love the layout — you never feel like you’re cordoned off into one section if you’re upstairs or down.
I have one minor gripe with Scala and that is… a smoking section inside? Really? Get with the times, dudes, smoking is soooo lame now. Kinda smells like a dirty stale smoke-​infested pub on the balcony. But if you’re there for a great gig, chances are you won’t even notice it.
My tip to you: Try and snag a spot at the front of the railing in the upstairs area. The view is perfect, as is the sound. And (to use a phrase I think I’ve used in every venue review I’ve done in London) your face will be most certainly melted.

Really fun venue! I went to Scala for Ladyhawke’s first London gig and it was sold out, but you could still move, still go get drinks, dance around and get up close to the stage if you wanted, not like some of those claustrophobic clubs that pack everyone in like sardines.
I wish Scala was still the home of popstarz, because it was meant to be an alternative-​to-​soho club night, and now it’s moved to the Den and it’s kind of expensive. Sadness aside, Scala does a diverse lineup so there’s always something cool going on. The only thing I found tricky was the maze to get to the toilets, unless maybe there’s another one that isn’t up two flights of stairs and around a few corners… those are the last directions you want to hear when you really gotta go!

I went to a gig at Scala last night for the first time and was pleasantly surprised. The place appeared to have at least a hundred rooms and stairways, making me feel like I was entering the deepest pits of hell. This was a good thing, though, as I was there to see Italian horror movie soundtrack legends, Goblin. So the endless descent down red-​walled stairways seemed appropriate.
Despite a full house, wait at the bar was minimal. Sound was really good. Lina happy. One downside was the ridiculous queue system. 90 minutes after doors opened there was still an enormous queue outside – they could definitely streamline the process.

Scala is a really good gig venue, though it is terrifically expensive! I also met Carl Barat there once– I didn’t realise it was him until he walked away, but still… pretty cool. There used to be a night on called Chalk which was actually quite bad, first few nights started off O. K… I think it was the crowd.
The upstairs venue is really intimate, it has it’s own bar and little seating booths. It’s probably my favourite part. The downstairs stage is quite big, but not too big so makes a good dancefloor. There are also loads of little areas and corridors and stairways, so the drunker you get in there the more confusion is caused. It is great for a club night venue, depending on the people there– I think that is what used to annoy me about Chalk!

While I was living near King’s Cross, Scala used to be one of my chosen venues for a night out, especially the Saturday Indie club night Chalk. The best thing about Scala is that it is set up for both DJs and live acts. It often hosts nights where you get a bit of both which is always fun. There is a big room downstairs with a main stage, and smaller room upstairs that is perfect for dancing your feet off and smaller live acts.
The live schedule at Scala is very mixed, making it appeal to all types of crowds. One night they will host a hip hop act, the next an indie band, followed by a pop act. Scala is a great music venue, and you will be able to have fun there, whatever music you are after.

The Scala, a former cinema, now a music venue/​nightclub in Kings Cross is my favourite venue for seeing bands at. I’ve managed to see some of my favourite indie bands of recent years here; Manitoba/​Caribou, Four Tet, Band of Horses, Built to Spill, Nada Surf, Modest Mouse, The Shins, Architecture in Helsinki etc., so I guess the venue has positive associations for me.
It’s a nicely laid out venue, aesthetically pleasing on the inside and looks quite pretty at night from the outside. There are multiple levels in the main gig floor/​area and it goes up (iirc) 3 floors which means you usually can get a good view of the stage.
A nice bit is the enclosed bar area above the main gig area (which is sometimes used as a VIP area), as it’s air conditioned, which is pretty useful if you’re seeing a gig in the middle of Summer and perhaps don’t really fancy being up front moshing with the crowd. The view from this bar was decent, but it’s been made a bit worse by the new roof of the sound desk which intrudes a bit into your line of vision, but I suppose that’s a small price to pay for seeing a gig seated in air conditioning. The sound in this room is not the best I must admit, so I generally only come here for a drink before the main act starts.
Pros
— multiple tiering and floors (so usually a good view of stage can be gained somewhere despite sold-​out gigs)
— enclosed bar area
— multiple bars and toilets
— mostly cheap-​ish
— lots of great bands frequent the venue for some reason
— good size for intimate gigs
— good sound/​acoustics
Cons
— can get rammed (but so does any venue)
— bit confusing for non-​regulars maybe
— not the greatest view & sound from the enclosed/​VIP bar
— not in the greatest area, but there are some nice bars around

A stone’s throw from Kings Cross, this is great, great venue to see a band doing the circuit. You would think the main chamber would be a bit bigger given the scale of the Scala, but as the other trusted reviewers have pointed out, it’s just about the perfect size to create a unified atmosphere.
The rabbit warren can be a little confusing, but is also very helpful for slipping yourself/​friends into the VIP areas.
Prospective bands get a wicked, if a little intimate, dressing room with good riders.
I caught Dreadzone here last night and they were as cracking as ever.

Une discothèque bizarre
Une discothèque avec des balcons sur plusieurs niveaux, un écran géant avec des images qui passent, le samedi c’est RNB. Entrée 8 livres.

Wer die Möglichkeit hat, sollte mindestens einmal in seinem Leben ein Konzert in London genießen. Im Vergleich zu Deutschland wird das eine wie Tag & Nacht Erfahrung sein. Die Locations sehen nicht nur schon von außen 1000 x phänomenaler aus, sie bieten auch innen grandiose Möglichkeiten sich nicht ständig auf die Füße zu treten. Und so eine klasse Location ist das Scala in King’s Cross, London. Man erreicht es vor allem mit der Underground schnell und einfach. Angenehm überraschend sind die zwar sehr gewaltig gebauten, aber immer freundlich und lockeren Securitys. Hier wird niemand grundlos begrabscht oder penetrant in jeder kleinen Tasche gewühlt. Das Scala erstreckt sich über 4 Etagen, jede ein stilistisches Meisterwerk für sich. Es gibt 3 Bars, 2 Tanzflächen und eine Bühne für Live-​Musik. Die Räumlichkeiten versprechen durch eine gute Klimaanlage immer genügend frischen Sauerstoff. Nicht zuletzt liegt es wohl auch an den Engländern selber, daß hier jedes Konzert zu einem absoluten Highlight wird.