Cloakroom prices at some UK venues have risen from about £2 to more than £13, the Guardian reports. Staffing, floor space, security and venues’ need for extra income are plausible drivers, though venue-level cost breakdowns are not known.
How much does it cost to store a coat or bag now?
The Guardian reports that storing a coat or a full tote bag cost about £2 not long ago, and that the price has passed £13 at some UK venues during the 2020s. It gives several London examples. A large locker for a bag costs £11 at the Outernet Live complex in Soho. At Fold, a nightclub in east London, the charge is £9, with a further payment needed to retrieve something. Drumsheds in north London, described as the UK’s biggest nightclub, charges up to £13.20 for a locker that can be reused at no extra cost. These are examples rather than a national average, and a typical UK price is not known.
Why are lockers replacing the traditional cloakroom rail?
A rail of hangers needs staff to take each item, tag it and find it again later. A locker moves much of that work to the customer, who stores and collects their own belongings. That can shorten queues at the start and end of a night, when large numbers of people arrive or leave within a short period. Lockers can also hold several items, which suits people carrying bags and groups sharing one unit. The change alters what is being sold: a fee for one hanger becomes a fee for a secured box, which can be priced higher. How far lockers have replaced rails across the UK is not known, and some venues may run both.
What does a venue have to pay for to run a cloakroom?
Even a simple cloakroom has running costs. A staffed one needs people on shift for the whole night, and those hours must be paid whether the rail is full or half empty. There are also tickets or tags, payment equipment and the cost of dealing with lost or disputed items. Depending on the arrangement, insurance may be part of the picture too. Lockers replace some of those costs with others, including buying or renting the units, maintaining them and running any digital access system. General rises in wages and operating costs would feed into all of this. The Guardian’s available summary does not itemise these costs, so their exact share of any fee is not known.
Why does floor space matter so much?
Space inside a venue is limited, and each part of it has to justify its use. An area given over to coats and bags cannot hold a bar, a dance floor or more paying customers. Storage is also bulky for what it earns, especially in winter, when more people arrive with heavy coats. Lockers take up a fixed footprint all night and all year, including on quieter dates. A venue weighing up that trade-off may set a price intended to reflect what the space could otherwise earn, not just what storage costs to provide. Whether specific venues calculate their prices this way is not known, but the pressure applies to any business with limited floor area.
How do security and bag rules affect demand?
Large events commonly involve searches at the door, and some venues limit what can be carried into the main rooms. Where bags cannot be taken onto the floor, storage stops being a convenience and becomes close to a requirement for anyone who has brought one. Crowded rooms also give people a practical reason not to carry valuables or heavy items while dancing. Travel plays a part as well, since visitors who come straight from work, or from another city, are more likely to arrive with a bag. These factors make demand fairly steady, which gives a venue more room to raise its price. Rules vary by venue, and there is no single policy that covers them all.
Why would a venue treat storage as a source of income?
Live music and club venues draw money from several places, including tickets, bars and smaller add-on charges. Depending on the deal, a share of ticket income may go to artists, promoters or agents, so venues have reason to care about any revenue they keep more directly. A storage fee can look less visible than a higher ticket price, because it is paid separately and not by everyone. It can also be adjusted without changing the advertised cost of a night out. That does not prove any given venue is profiting heavily from storage, since the margins are not public in the material available here. It does explain why a cloakroom may be run as a business line rather than as a basic service.
Why can storage prices rise faster than other venue prices?
The Guardian reports that storage charges are outpacing other venue prices, which are also going up. One general explanation is a lack of alternatives. Once someone has travelled to a venue with a coat or bag, they have few other options, particularly if there is nothing nearby where they can leave it. Prices in that kind of situation can move further before customers respond. Comparison is also difficult, because storage prices tend to get less attention than ticket or drink prices when people choose a night out. Starting from a low base matters too: a change of a few pounds appears large as a percentage. How much each factor contributes is not known, and it probably differs between venues.
Why do some lockers charge again each time they are opened?
The Guardian’s examples show two different models. At Fold, a person who wants to retrieve something has to pay again, while the Drumsheds lockers can be reused without another fee, even though their headline price is higher. A charge per opening can discourage repeat visits, which may reduce crowding around the lockers during a busy night. It also means that the headline price understates the cost for anyone who needs access more than once. A single higher fee is simpler and more predictable, but costs more for people who only need to use the locker once. Comparing venues therefore means looking at the conditions of use as well as the initial price. The reasons behind each venue’s choice are not known.
Does it matter who actually runs the cloakroom?
It can matter, because cloakrooms and lockers are not always operated in the same way. A venue may employ its own staff, or it may hand the service to an outside contractor or locker provider under some form of commercial agreement. Where a third party is involved, the fee may have to cover that company’s costs and margin as well as any payment made to the venue. Automated locker systems may also come with their own equipment or software charges. Those arrangements could add a layer to the final price, but they are usually private. Which operators work with which venues, and how the money is divided between them, is not known from the material available for this article.
What can people do to keep the cost down?
The simplest option is to bring less. Leaving a heavy coat or bag at home removes the need for storage, although that is harder in winter or when travelling straight from somewhere else. It is worth checking a venue’s website or ticketing page before setting out, since storage prices and bag rules are sometimes listed there. People should also find out whether a fee covers one opening or repeated access, and whether friends may share a locker. Sharing can divide the cost, where the venue allows it. If nothing is published in advance, it is sensible to allow for a possible charge in the budget for the night, particularly at large events where bags may be restricted.
What is still not known about these prices?
Several important details remain unclear. The figures here are individual examples from the Guardian’s reporting, not a survey of UK venues, so they do not show how far prices have risen on average or outside London. The available summary also does not say how much of each fee covers costs and how much is profit. The explanations offered in this article are general economic and operational factors, not figures supplied by the venues named. It is also not known how customers are responding, for example by carrying less or by avoiding venues with high charges. A full comparison would need published prices across many venues over time, along with cost information that operators do not normally make public.
Sources and further reading
- The Guardian: music reporting on rising cloakroom and locker charges, the source of all the prices quoted here
- Venue websites and ticketing pages: where current storage prices and bag rules may be published, for further reading
- Competition and Markets Authority: the UK regulator for consumer protection and pricing practices, for further reading
- Night Time Industries Association: a UK trade body representing nightlife businesses, for further reading
Surfaced from the rss:guardian_music signal “rising venue cloakroom prices”. AI-assisted draft, editorially reviewed.
