The iconic 80s club frequented by celebs from George Michael to King Charles

Back in the 80s, Limelight was one of London's top nightclubs and a favourite haunt for the decade's biggest celebrities. The West End hotspot was nestled in a former chapel on Shaftsbury Avenue until its popularity waned and it was sadly sold off and transformed into a bar.

Today, the building is aptly home to an arts organisation with fresh plans to propel the arts venue into the future. But understandably, some Londoners are nostalgic for hedonistic nights once spent in this iconic building.

Echoes of its glamorous showbiz past as one of the places to be seen in London in the 1980s reverberate through the walls of this stunning piece of architecture. Limelight in London originally opened its doors in 1985 in a Grade II listed former Welsh Presbyterian church in Shaftsbury Avenue in the West End borough of Westminster.

Music world stars who were regulars at the nightclub included Boy George, Duran Duran, Spandau Ballet and Steve Strange. Even Sir Bob Geldof celebrated his stag do at Limelight before he tied the knot with Paula Yates in 1986.

George Michael was a regular too, and often made his entrance at the nightclub accompanied by a woman before he publicly came out as gay. Even Prince Charles has been to the Limelight club - he was snapped getting out of the Royal car as he arrived to attend a reception for the Prince's Trust at the venue in December 1997.

However, in 1987, Rachel Macmillan, granddaughter of the Conservative prime minister Howard Macmillan, died aged 31 after a night at the Limelight.

When Limelight's popularity waned, it was sold and in 2003 became a Walkabout sports bar. The Walkabout bar closed after its parent company went into administration in October 2009.

The building was then taken over by squatters until arts charity Stone Nest arrived to restore and redevelop the building into a performance space for theatre, dance, music, video and performance art in 2012.

By October 2018, the anonymous landlord of the former chapel won planning approval from Westminster council to upscale the venue into a major performance venue on the West End's arts scene with a restaurant and basement bar, run by Stone Nest.

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