Southend Sun Rooms 2 new club opened off Alexandra Street

The “Sun Rooms 2” has opened in Market Place, off Alexandra Street, and takes its name from the original Sun Rooms club which ran for 20 years in the city until 2013.

The team behind the new club are hoping to keep live music alive in Southend and promote their vision of creating “a little Shoreditch” in Alexandra Street, just off the city’s High Street.

The club joins the likes of the Terrace Bar, Twelve Cocktails, virtual golf bar Bunker 19 and The Alex pub in the area.

Sun Rooms 2 staff (Image: Sun Rooms 2)

Sun Rooms 2 team member, Robby Barrow, believes by creating a “non-competitive night-life district” Southend could restore its status as a nightlife haven and become popular with residents across south Essex.

He said: “We want to work as one, we have actually marketed our competitors on our website and we really see the area as our own little Shoreditch by the sea, we want to see people bar-hopping and going between venues.

“Everyone in Southend is very for themselves and it has never been more important to come together to keep live music going and to support the underground music scene, without that, nothing comes to the commercial level, it is very important.”

Opened - the new Sun Rooms 2 venue (Image: Sun Rooms 2)

Robby added that the venue has an upstairs, which will be turned into a club in coming months called “the loft” and they will be working on a garden to be revealed sooner.

“This building was an 18th century courthouse, it has also been a machining shop and restaurant. That varied past meant we had to fix damp, redo the floor, the toilets and redesign everything from a health and safety perspective,” he added.

“Our ground floor bar is done, we wanted it to look like a cave and we brought in sculptor friends to make it look like it was filled with Aztec statues.”

The Sun Rooms 2 will also be working with the Continental Drifts production company to help them funnel bookings and talent to perform at the club.