Infernos (Bar, Club)

Best for: Staking your well-earned pounds on great party night out.

Great: Karaoke room, you can sing like the Rat Pack.

I am very much a creature of habit rather than a gambling man. I go to the same areas, the same bars because I know I will see the same familiar faces, the same drunken route back home. I feel safe because I go back to the same kebab shop before the same night bus home knowing that I won’t be getting a horse kebab. A flutter on the horses: yes. A kebab made from the horses: no thanks.

Venturing to Clapham on a Saturday night, it was definitely a roll of the dice for me; having never been there. What I wasn’t expecting was the Las Vegas Strip of South London. There were glamorous lights, bars aplenty and punters ready for action.

The Caesar’s Palace of Clapham High Street is, no doubt, Infernos. It’s the biggest, most well-known and unmissable club on the strip, visible by the sheer number of revellers heading in its direction. Despite the large numbers of people, the queue moved quickly with military efficiency, thanks to the well drilled security staff.

Clearly I wouldn’t have done well in a game of blackjack; I thought maybe I looked 21, but no, instead I was slightly offended I wasn’t asked for my ID. Too many late night perhaps?

I don’t know if they were secretly pumping oxygen into the rooms, like they did at Caesar’s Palace, but the Infernos crowd was lively, energetic and above all very friendly. You can easily don fancy dress and not feel out of place. Avoid the jetlag of flying to Sin City for your hen party; there are only winners in the City of Infernos, no losers.

Infernos was infamously featured in the Inbetweeners movie; luckily for them I’ve never seen the show, so I visited with an open mind and actually felt more like George Clooney in Ocean’s Eleven rather than an inbetweener.

In its previous incarnation, it could have been a theatre or a casino; this venue is massive. The central area of the main room is a large concert sized space cleverly designed with different elevations: alcove parts near the top, perfect for the cosy chitchats amongst friends; bars mostly in the centre; and dancing floor at the bottom. There are two more rooms which are smaller versions of the main room for those intimidated by large spaces.

The high rollers room must be the karaoke room; the jewel in the crown. It sits at the very top and overlooks one of the main bars with a large glass window. For that one moment, microphone in hand, I felt like Celine Dion at her Colosseum residency in Caesar’s Palace. Luckily the croupier in charge of the karaoke machine spun the wheel of fortune and I ended up with something easier than Celine: ABBA’s Money, Money, Money.

My inner karaoke diva had come out, but sadly I had to be dragged, after an hour, out of the room screaming and kicking by my entourage. It was time to mingle with the crowd.

Despite the links with The Inbetweeners, the venue is so massive that there are people from all walks of life. There are the young and carefree to set your heart aflutter, or you can go for the work-conscious professionals if you’re looking for safe bet marriage material.

What combines everyone together is their passion for pop music. The music here is unashamedly populist. Your Katy Perry and your Will.i.am bast out of their superb sound systems. Much like my Las Vegas comparison, Infernos is proud of what it does and it does it very well indeed.

The drinks are not student priced, but neither is it Las Vegas priced. The great thing is that there are bars throughout the building, so you never have to wait long to be served. My entourage had the ever popular vodka and Red Bull. For me, being the leader of the Rat Pack, it was Daniels with ice. Yes, that is the correct way of saying it, Ol' Blue Eyes would have been proud.

Unlike poor Bradley Cooper in the Hangover movie, our gang of four remembered our brave journey to Infernos. It’s rekindled our love of karaoke, our love for ABBA, our love for just dancing non-stop all night. Gambling isn’t so bad after all.
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