Blitz: How a London Nightclub Shaped the 80s

In late 1970s London, a small Covent Garden wine bar called Blitz became the gathering place for a new wave of style, sound and attitude. Now, its short yet explosive legacy takes centre stage in an exhibition at the Design Museum.

Vivienne Lynn, Boy George, Chris Sullivan, Kim Bowen, Theresa Thurmer and a Blitz attendee, 1980. © Derek Ridgers

They were called the New Romantics: a restless generation of young Londoners who turned away from punk’s decay and mainstream conformity to create a new visual and sonic language. At Blitz, music and fashion collided with art-school experimentation, and figures like Spandau Ballet, Visage and Boy George first found their stage. That energy is now revisited in Blitz: the club that shaped the 80s, on view at the Design Museum in London from 20 September 2025 to 29 March 2026.

Curated by Danielle Thom, the exhibition brings together over 250 objects directly from the personal collections of the original Blitz Kids. Visitors will discover rare garments, accessories, sketches, musical instruments, fanzines, photographs and archival film—most unseen for more than forty years. Among the highlights are the Yamaha synthesiser Spandau Ballet used for their debut album Journeys to Glory, Gary Kemp’s handwritten lyrics, and ensembles worn on the Blitz dancefloor, including Chris Sullivan’s tartan suit and early designs by Stephen Jones, David Holah and Dinny Hall.

Outside the Blitz club in 1979. Photograph: Sheila Rock

Two Blitz attendees, about 1980.Robyn Beeche Foundation

Spandau Ballet’s debut photo shoot at the Warren Street squat, 1980. PhotoGraham Smith

The show also revisits the cultural ripple effects of Blitz: the birth of The Face and i-D, David Bowie casting Blitz Kids in his Ashes to Ashes video, and the parallel innovation of designers like Ron Arad, Jasper Morrison and Tom Dixon. Beyond nostalgia, the exhibition reveals how these restless creatives transformed the bleakness of late 1970s London into glamour, experimentation and radical aesthetics that shaped a decade.