The 10 best clubs in Bristol, ranked: Lakota, Thekla, The Love Inn, Strange Brew, Lost Horizon and more, with ticket prices, closing times and door tips.
The best clubs in Bristol are small, cheap and serious about sound. Most of the ten on this list hold a few hundred people, many of them run drum and bass, jungle, dub or house most weekends, and a typical ticket costs £5–15. The biggest change is the one you will not find here: Motion, the warehouse club behind Temple Meads, closed in July 2025 when its lease ended.
What is left is a scene spread across a few walkable areas. Stokes Croft and St Pauls hold Lakota, The Love Inn, Cosies and The Croft. The centre has Thekla, Strange Brew, Basement 45 and Electric Bristol, and Loco Klub sits in the arches under Temple Meads. Each entry tells you what we could verify: the ticket price, when the night ends, what the door wants and one honest reason to skip it.
We ranked clubs on five things: sound, crowd, door, late licence and value. Sound means a room and a system built for the music. Crowd means people who came for the booking. Door means how easy it is to get in and what each venue asks of you, from photo ID to bag rules. Late licence means how far into the night it runs: here, 03:00 to 04:00 at best. Value compares the ticket with what you get. Every club had events listed for autumn 2026, and every price, time and address comes from the venue or its official listings. We do not sell tickets ourselves.
Lakota has run club nights on Upper York Street since 1992 and now spreads across four spaces, including the newer Moon Club and the outdoor Lakota Gardens. Drum and bass, jungle, techno, garage and psytrance share the weekly programme, and tickets are cheap for the size. Skip it if you want a quiet, intimate room.
A former cargo ship at Mud Dock, with a 400-capacity hold for the main room and a 170-capacity bar upstairs as a second room. Club nights start at 22:00, and drum and bass nights are the biggest tickets. Skip it if you need step-free access: access is limited and there is no accessible toilet.
Team Love's 200-capacity room on Stokes Croft has a Danley sound system, a cocktail bar and a late licence to 04:00 at the weekend. Entry is free every night until 22:00, and ticketed nights such as Gonno cost £8–12.50. Skip it if you want space: 200 people fill it fast.
The Dirtytalk promoters crowdfunded this multi-room art space, bar and venue on Fairfax Street, and the bookings show it: DJ Krush, Lena Willikens and Boris all played in one week of October 2026. Headline nights cost around £15 and the licence ends at 03:00. Skip it if you want a polished club with a big light show.
The team behind Glastonbury's Shangri-La runs this 350-capacity venue and art space by the Cabot Circus car park. The policy is dub, club and live bands, with dub nights from £7.60 and jungle at about £14. Skip it if you want a sleek, polished superclub.
Loco Klub fills the arches under Temple Meads with club nights, cabaret and theatre, thanks to its ties to the Invisible Circus. The 23 Degrees dubstep party cost £10.80 in October 2026, and the themed weekends sell out. Skip it if you want a plain club night: some events here are half theatre.
A 300-capacity arched tunnel under Frogmore Street, running since 2009, with drum and bass on most Fridays and a promoter's choice on Saturdays. Tickets start at about £5.50, among the cheapest in the city. Skip it if you want room to move on a busy night.
A basement micro club on Portland Square with a long reggae and dub tradition, a weekly Reggae Sunday and drum and bass and jungle at the weekend. Tickets cost about £5.50. Skip it if you want space or a big light show.
The former SWX on Nelson Street holds about 1,800 people over several floors and runs drum and bass, jungle and techno club nights after the gigs. With Motion gone, it is the largest room on this list. Skip it if you prefer small, sweaty basements.
The former Crofters Rights is back under its original name, with a late-night pub at the front and a 140-capacity back room for gigs and club nights. The pub is free and open until 04:00 from Monday to Saturday, and club nights cost about £5.50. Skip it if you want a big dancefloor.
Plan the night around one area. Lakota, Cosies, The Love Inn and The Croft are a few minutes apart in Stokes Croft and St Pauls, so a second room is never far away, and The Love Inn and The Croft run until 04:00 at the weekend. In the centre, Strange Brew, Basement 45 and Electric Bristol are a short walk from each other, and Thekla sits on the harbour below them. Loco Klub is the odd one out, under Temple Meads station.
There is no metro or tram. First runs night buses from the centre on routes such as the 70, 75 and 76, a single costs £2.60 and day tickets are valid until 04:29. Most people walk between clubs. Bring photo ID: club nights in Bristol are 18+.
Bristol rewards a short plan: pick an area, buy the one ticket that might sell out, and keep a second room within walking distance. For prices, transport and how the night runs from the first pint to 04:00, read our full Bristol nightlife guide. If you are still choosing where to drink before the club, our guide to Bristol nightlife by neighbourhood covers each area in turn. For ticketed nights and events, see NightFind tickets. Heading on? Manchester and London have bigger rooms.
It depends on the night you want. Lakota for a multi-room rave, Thekla for drum and bass on a boat, The Love Inn for house and techno in a small room, and Strange Brew for left-field bookings.
No. Motion closed on 19 July 2025 when its lease ended. Its team has announced plans for a new space on Victoria Terrace in St Philip's, but no opening date had been confirmed at the time of writing.
Usually at 03:00 or 04:00. The Love Inn and The Croft close at 04:00 on Friday and Saturday, and Strange Brew has a 03:00 licence.
Usually £5–15. Basement 45, Cosies and The Croft charge about £5.50, Lakota and Loco Klub about £11, and big drum and bass nights at Thekla up to about £22.
Yes. Club nights are 18+ and doors check photo ID. A passport, a driving licence or a PASS card is the safe choice.
