The Cavendish Square pub with the cellar live music room runs cask ales upstairs and a small-stage programme of rock and indie nights downstairs that costs nothing on the door.
Tip: The cellar gigs are free entry, walk down the side stairs and put a fiver in the bucket for the band.
Address: 37 Cavendish Square, Marylebone, London W1G 0PP
The 1999-opened Farringdon warehouse with three rooms and a Bodysonic dancefloor is still the global benchmark for how a serious dance club should sound, programme and last the night.
Tip: Buy in advance, the door queues on Saturday curl down Charterhouse Street by midnight. Room One is the bass-rattled main floor.
The 1991 Elephant and Castle warehouse that exported British clubbing as a global brand is still pulling tier-one DJs into the Box, with a sound rig that earns its reputation.
Tip: The Box main room sound is the experience, do not get sidetracked into the smaller rooms before midnight.
The Brixton Road club run by the Mixmag-tested Phonox crew runs a no-headliner format where one resident plays the whole night, and the Saturday booking policy has built a loyal regular crowd.
Tip: Get there before midnight, the door cuts off well before close and the queue gets brutal on a name Saturday.
The 14,999 capacity warehouse in the former Meridian Water IKEA is the country's biggest indoor club, run by Broadwick, and is where the touring superstar electronic sets land in north London.
Tip: The Overground to Meridian Water is the only sensible way in, taxis pile up on Glover Drive and the walk from Tottenham Hale is long after a 10-hour set.
The Canning Town warehouse with a 24-hour license has built a reputation for serious techno bookings and a strict no-phones-on-the-floor policy that protects the room from becoming an Instagram set.
Tip: Phones go in pouches at the door, that is the rule and it is enforced. Cash for the cloakroom moves the queue.
The Wapping warehouse on Pennington Street runs a multi-room curated programme of techno and house with the kind of long-form bookings that pull in international touring DJs and Sunday-morning crowds.
Tip: Wapping Overground is the quickest way home at 7am, the night buses out of Shadwell are a long wait after a closing set.