“London is fucking dead": The nightclub owner, the public funds, and the Lamborghini
London Centric Investigates: Alex Proud's venues were propped up with £885,000 in emergency arts funding. The boss didn't mention he was buying vintage cars and heavily in debt.
A London nightclub owner bought a vintage Lamborghini shortly after receiving hundreds of thousands of pounds in public arts funding to prop up his supposedly struggling venues.
London Centric has been told that Alex Proud, the high-profile London cabaret boss who ran two nightclubs and a gallery, paid £77,700 for a 1985 black Lamborghini Jalpa within weeks of his business being paid emergency pandemic cash by Arts Council England.
Proud initially told us he was “99% certain” that he bought the car before applying for the grant. He subsequently told us he did not use the Arts Council money to buy it and the car had instead been a profitable investment.
The car purchase has raised eyebrows amongst others in the London arts community, at a time when cultural venues are closing down or struggling to win public grants. Many former employees of Proud have been campaigning for the wages they say they are owed by him from failed businesses.
In total Proud’s companies received £885,000 of public arts funding in the pandemic, during which time he was still adding to what he previously dubbed a “small collection” of vintage cars.
The longtime club operator, who was once at the heart of the capital’s 2000s “indie sleaze” movement, told us that London nightlife is “fucking dead” and he is now focussing his efforts on Panama City, believing there’s a more welcoming environment in Central America.
Proud also told London Centric that he hasn’t stolen anything and over his time in business has paid far more in tax than he has taken out. He says he refinanced the Lamborghini within weeks of buying it to make a £20,000 profit for his business and is working hard to repay performers owed unpaid wages by his many collapsed companies.
“I’m not some dodgy motherfucker,” Proud said in response to our questions.
He suggested his companies’ financial woes are really just part of a general story about the decline of the capital’s nightlife: “London is fucking dead, absolutely dead… it’s lost its buzz. It’s lost its vibe. It’s just full of rich fucking people who no one likes, or ever meets, and they spend £15,000 on a table in some Mayfair restaurant. That wasn’t the London I signed up for, I signed up for Camden when it was exciting and fun, and you can’t do any of that anymore. And it’s just, where’s the live music gone? Where’s the buzz gone? Where are all the new bands coming from?”
London Centric has learned that Proud also:
Admitted using “abusive” language towards a council licensing officer in an incident which saw him kick furniture.
Failed to attend a police interview following a mass brawl involving gang members at one of his venues.
Did not tell Arts Council England about his substantial debts in a second, successful, funding bid for £350,000 in public arts funds.
Recently launched a new venue, Sinners in Shoreditch, that immediately ran into financial troubles.
Is still being chased for unpaid funds by workers at his Haus of Cabaret venue, who told us they were owed £100,000 in unpaid wages.
Questions remain: Should someone who can afford an expensive new car be applying for emergency public funding for his businesses? Why did other London venues miss out? And why give hundreds of thousands of pounds to venues whose recent financial struggles could easily be found with a brief search of public records?
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