It has been a topic of discussion for some time: with the closure of so many of London’s largest venues, where would Torture Garden stage its largest parties once The Coronet closed? 

A possible answer came with the announcement of the 2018 TG Halloween Ball, which took place on November 3 at Studio 338 in north Greenwich. 

But this itself raised other questions: would kinksters leave familiar central London for an SE10 mega-club? And would that venue be a comfortable new home for the biggest spectacle on the London fetish calendar? 

The first question was undeniably answered by a very early sellout and high demand for standby tickets. The second answer seemed to be a strong “yes” — as long as some start-up glitches get smoothed out for future events.

Studio 338 doesn’t publicise its exact capacity but it’s somewhere in the Coronet’s 2,000-3,000 range. This said, Torture Garden Halloween 2018 continued TG’s policy of admitting significantly fewer guests than the legal capacity in order to minimise crowding and allow space for playful activities. 

It seemed to have hit a sweet spot as the venue certainly felt full and lively without undesirable waits at the bars or toilets.

Once past the multiple security checks, the separate cloakrooms for coats only (inside) and coats with bags (a tent outside), and a final dresscode check,  partygoers could access the main dance space. 

This room is reminiscent of The Coronet in terms of the scale of its main stage and dancefloor. But since the venue was rebuilt within the last few years, it has a much more contemporary ‘clean’ feel with a glass roof and ultramodern sound and lighting system. 

In fact, ‘a more modern Coronet’ is a fitting way to describe the club’s layout, from the outdoor passage to the second cloakroom and dungeon, the second dancefloor one level up, and the socialising bar at the back of the main floor. 

With the standard rotation of DJs, the animated Benjamin Louche at the microphone as chef de cérémonie and the sea of familiar faces in the crowd, there’s no question you were at Torture Garden event, even without the Coronet’s well-worn treads.

The onstage performances too were standard fare for TG, ie top-notch in both production and wow-factor. 

The Ball’s headliner, British latex designer Dayne Henderson, has made a name for himself with identity-altering catsuit-and-hood combinations that look as if they could only exist on a faraway planet with a highly advanced civilization. And his fashion show tonight lived up to every expectation. 

The big stage and high ceilings were perfect for the aerial trio Raven Kindness, who previously left me breathless when I first saw them at their TG New York performance this summer. And the messy shenanigans of Chrisalys Circus and the aerial feats of Katharine Arnold kept the crowd spinning.

My impression was that the large crowd had fewer of the ‘tourist’ types than some other recent TG events and that guests upped their outfit styles, preferring fetish finery or Mad Max nihilism to cheap Halloween costumes.

One significant departure for TG was the lack of a couples’ room play space. But that did little to inhibit this crowd, as the wide balcony with its plentiful comfortable seating areas became an uninhibited show of flesh and action.