The history
Bit of a personal one this as I use to frequent dukes most weekends and the occasional week night. It was a big deal when they closed the doors finally in 2012.
Dukes was a nightclub based in Duke street and synonymous with Chelmsford's nightlife since 1982.
Back in the glory days of Dukes you would see queues round the block and people would come from all over southern England for a night’s excitement
But all things change and we live in different times now. A combination of the 24-hour licensing laws and the smoking ban has hurt the pub and club industry.
Dukes played a very prominent part in the entertainment scene in Essex.
Dukes had a few revamps over the years with the name changing from Dukes, to The Dukes Experience and finally Dukes Genesis before it eventually closed.
I remember 20 years ago, my parents went away for their wedding anniversary and I decided to take my sister and her mates to Dukes for the night, although if the truth be known they kinda bullied me into it. They were all underage, but typically tarted themselves up so they looked over 18. We had a great night and danced away ‘til it closed. We thought we had got away with mum and dad not knowing until a few weeks later mum found the paper with the taxi numbers on and the postcode for Dukes. Oopps we got told off lol.
I have many many memories of Dukes and had some great times there, but now for the explore…
The Explore
If you’re local you will have seen on social media this week the pictures of Dukes with the bull dozer in the middle and the inners smashed to bits, we were lucky we made it in the before the bulldozers
I had mentioned this one to our lot a number of times, always to be met with, it’ll be shit, it’s not doable etc etc. Well in the early hours of the morning and part of our first explore of the new year we gave it a go.
Well well well it was after all doable, and relatively easily too.
One of our group like me was a Dukes regular, as we walked in it all came flooding back, the various bars, the dancer’s platform, the dancefloor cage. It was all a bit over whelming and very nostalgic.
Thoughts of dancing with this girl and that girl here and there and snogging under the infamous Dukes stairs or on one of the many couches dotted around the club came back. Needless to say we were both grinning away with stories we could tell.
It was amazing to see what had been left inside, Dj equipment, Booze, Lights, projectors etc. We even joked about opening it up for the night. Dukes was a great place and very much loved by my generation RIP The Duke.
As I sit and type this Snap’s song Rhythm is a dancer has come on the radio. A proper Dukes Anthem, Please enjoy the pics as I have a little dance and remind myself that I was young once….
Bit of a personal one this as I use to frequent dukes most weekends and the occasional week night. It was a big deal when they closed the doors finally in 2012.
Dukes was a nightclub based in Duke street and synonymous with Chelmsford's nightlife since 1982.
Back in the glory days of Dukes you would see queues round the block and people would come from all over southern England for a night’s excitement
But all things change and we live in different times now. A combination of the 24-hour licensing laws and the smoking ban has hurt the pub and club industry.
Dukes played a very prominent part in the entertainment scene in Essex.
Dukes had a few revamps over the years with the name changing from Dukes, to The Dukes Experience and finally Dukes Genesis before it eventually closed.
I remember 20 years ago, my parents went away for their wedding anniversary and I decided to take my sister and her mates to Dukes for the night, although if the truth be known they kinda bullied me into it. They were all underage, but typically tarted themselves up so they looked over 18. We had a great night and danced away ‘til it closed. We thought we had got away with mum and dad not knowing until a few weeks later mum found the paper with the taxi numbers on and the postcode for Dukes. Oopps we got told off lol.
I have many many memories of Dukes and had some great times there, but now for the explore…
The Explore
If you’re local you will have seen on social media this week the pictures of Dukes with the bull dozer in the middle and the inners smashed to bits, we were lucky we made it in the before the bulldozers
I had mentioned this one to our lot a number of times, always to be met with, it’ll be shit, it’s not doable etc etc. Well in the early hours of the morning and part of our first explore of the new year we gave it a go.
Well well well it was after all doable, and relatively easily too.
One of our group like me was a Dukes regular, as we walked in it all came flooding back, the various bars, the dancer’s platform, the dancefloor cage. It was all a bit over whelming and very nostalgic.
Thoughts of dancing with this girl and that girl here and there and snogging under the infamous Dukes stairs or on one of the many couches dotted around the club came back. Needless to say we were both grinning away with stories we could tell.
It was amazing to see what had been left inside, Dj equipment, Booze, Lights, projectors etc. We even joked about opening it up for the night. Dukes was a great place and very much loved by my generation RIP The Duke.
As I sit and type this Snap’s song Rhythm is a dancer has come on the radio. A proper Dukes Anthem, Please enjoy the pics as I have a little dance and remind myself that I was young once….
It's always weird revisiting places you were once familiar with.
