As Oxford prepares itself for the launch of its newest night spot, we look back at the highs and lows of the past few clubbing decades in the city.
Check out the gallery above and see if you can spot yourself and your friends from back in the day!
TEMPERATURES are rising across the city this Easter weekend as Oxford’s gets Fever.
The city’s newest nightspot – Fever – is due to open its doors tonight at 13-15 Magdalen Street, formerly home to Tiki-themed Lola Lo’s and its predecessor Po Na Na.
The new owners, who run clubs around the UK, including Banbury, say they have invested £200,000 and installed a light-up dance floor and ‘an array of disco balls’.
It’s a major investment for what the the company says is a pretty pokey little place – a 200 capacity single room, compared to venues which can take 1,000 or more clubbers across several floors.
As a result, dance floor designers have said their newest nightclub will be small but sweet, and aim to attract clubbers of all types by playing straightforward pop hits from the 80s, 90s and naughties.
Fever Bars director Duncan Squiers said: “We’re billing it as Oxford’s guilty little pleasure.
“It’s open to all and it’s middle-of-the-road.
“We’re just trying to bring a fun little venue to Oxford town centre - something which appeals to all different types of people.”
The basement bar is so tiny, in fact, Mr Squiers said his company, based in Cheltenham, had taken it off former owners Eclectic ‘to help them out’.
But he said his firm had tried to ‘transform’ the space, tearing out the ‘Tiki paradise’ and replacing it with something more familiar.
“We’ve put in an array of glitter balls, a fantastic colour-changing dance floor and some fantastic booze to boot.”
Fever have also employed a total of 20 staff including security.
The only thing to worry about now is getting the punters in.
Mr Squiers joked: “Because all the students are just about to go away for Easter it’s probably the worst time to be opening a club in Oxford.
“It will do well, though.
“It will be a fun little place for a work party or to go out with mates after work.”
Entry will cost £3 before midnight and £4 after.
Lola Lo’s spent seven years at the site before closing down in March.
Po Na Na, which was popular with students from Oxford University and Oxford Brookes.
The opening of the new club comes after the closure of a number of popular nightclubs in the city in recent years.
Both Wahoo and The Glee Club in Hythe Bridge Street closed their doors at the end of 2016, following a multi-million pound deal between Nuffield College and Christ Church College to transform the area near Frideswide Square.
It followed the closure of former dance venue Warehouse in Park End Street the previous year.
The club is set to be turned into office space for Oxford University.
Other clubs, like Lola Lo, have reopened in different guises.
What was once Club Latino in St Clement’s is now cocktail bar and late night bar Be At One following a major refurbishment in 2015.
Zodiac in Cowley Road is now The O2 Academy, known until 2009 as the Carling Academy under its previous sponsorship agreement.
The Westgate Centre was formerly home to a host of clubs including Scamps, which opened in the early 1970s, and Boodles, though no clubs have been announced for the new Westgate.
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