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‘We handed out raw fish to clubbers’: the mind-bending acid house tour of London

George Georgiou gave British rave culture its smiley face. Now he’s placing plaques where hardcore clubbers sweated till dawn. Our writers joins the designer – and DJs Danny Rampling and Nicky Holloway – on a face-melting trip

The doorway we’re standing outside in London Bridge is one of many locations we’ll visit today, as Georgiou places acid house heritage plaques outside buildings that were once home to clubs such as Shoom, Raw and Sin. It was here that resident DJs Nicky Holloway and Pete Tong lured suburban soul boys and Soho trendies to an old pub to get sweaty, while Gilles Peterson kept the footworkers busy by spinning jazz-funk in the other room. “Legend has it people were popping these.” He came up with plenty of other unconventional design ideas: “We handed out bananas with stickers on, little cacti, toys, even raw fish – little whitebait in a plastic bag with the club’s name on.”

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