Blue Note Jazz Club will open its first UK venue in London in early September 2026. The club will operate from the basement of the St Martins Lane hotel in Covent Garden.
The venue will include two performance spaces. The main Blue Note room will hold 250 people. Its design will give guests views of the stage and support sound quality. A second room, called B Side, will hold 100 people.
B Side will offer a flexible setup. It will host smaller live shows, DJ nights, Latin music events and dancing. The two rooms will serve different audiences.
A Focus on British Jazz
Nick Lewis will lead music and programming at the London club. He previously spent 15 years at Ronnie Scott’s and later worked at Koko. He plans to give British jazz artists a place in the programme while also booking international acts.
The club will use a broad definition of jazz. Its programme may include soul, R&B, hip-hop, Afrobeats and reggae, as long as the music has jazz roots. Blue Note follows the same approach at its other venues.
The London project faced a difficult licensing process. However, the club secured the operating terms it needed. Lewis described the opening as a good news story for London and its live music sector.
Blue Note Entertainment Group president Steven Bensusan sees London as an important market. The company plans to use the venue as a base for wider growth in Europe. It already operates a club in Milan, but the London venue will work on a larger scale.
The opening will bring an international jazz brand into London’s music scene. The club aims to support local talent, attract major performers and offer different live music formats under one roof.
