Blitz: the Club that shaped the 80s at the Design Museum review
The Design Museum’s latest exhibition, Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s, takes visitors deep into the heart of one of London’s most influential, and short-lived (18 months!) nightclubs, a fleeting but very important cultural moment.
More than just a style retrospective, this show captures how a tiny Covent Garden venue sparked a cultural shift that would echo through fashion, music, design and cultural history for decades to come.
Outside the Blitz club in 1979. Image credit Sheila Rock.
With over 250 objects on display, from Boy George’s stage outfits to rare flyers to a partial recreation of the club itself, the exhibition is both visually rich and emotionally charged. The audio and video footage attempts to bring the Blitz era to life, and it is like stepping back in time and dancing to the 80s beat!
Blitz was not just glamorous escapism, but it also was rebellion, self-invention, and art. Set against the backdrop of Thatcher-era Britain, it shows how creativity can thrive in hard times. The exhibition also highlights how some of the “New Romantics” or “Blitz Kids” challenged mainstream conformity through their outrageous fashion and futuristic music, later becoming global icons from leading designers and writers to artists and filmmakers, who helped shape the 1980s and beyond.
Blitz: The Club That Shaped the 80s. Image credit Luke Hayes.
As a child of the 1980s, I’ve found myself appreciating the decade more as I grow older. The exhibition felt like a time capsule, filling me with an inexplicable sense of excitement. I couldn’t help but wonder how those who actually lived through the Blitz era felt. What an extraordinary club, and what an extraordinary time!
Blitz: The Club That Shaped the 80s. Image credit Massoumeh Safinia.
The exhibition at the Design Museum is stylish, thoughtful, nostalgic, thought-provoking, and fun, with just the right touch of chaos, it is the 1980s, after all. Blitz could be described as a love letter to a time when young people dressed, danced, and lived as if nobody was watching, all while transforming the face of pop culture.
Date: 20 September 2025 - 29 March 2026. Location: Design Museum, 224-238 Kensington High Street, W8 6AG. Price: From £14.38. Concessions available. Book now
Words by Massoumeh Safinia
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