Long live the 'micro-lounge'

Other new "less is more" clubs include Boujis, Kabaret's Prophecy, the Playroom at Notting Hill's Electric House and the East Bar at Sketch, in Mayfair. Even Annabel's, once the preserve of drunken Hooray Henries practising their daddancing - with their dads - has found itself fashionable again.

Later this year Matt Hermer, who created Boujis and Cocoon restaurant and lounge in Regent Street, will open a new central London venue to cater for what he terms the new generation of "micro-clubbers". "We're going small-scale to maintain an intimate vibe and allow smaller groups of people to have fun," says Hermer. "These days, small is beautiful."

In a razzle-dazzle world where big is usually never big enough, what's behind the less-is-more chic? For celebrities, the appeal of a small, discreet venue is obvious. Away from the big club dancefloors and behind closed doors, they can escape the paparazzi and the kind of "friend" who sells mobile phone pictures to the tabloids.

For the rest of us, it may mean paying more - non-members have to spend at least £40 at the Games Room - but the reward is a good time. Guaranteed. Rob Ferguson, who runs one-off club nights in London and overseas, says: "At a small club you know you are not going to have one of those awful nights where you lose your friends, queue for drinks and have to put up with honking out-oftowners, City boys, corporate sponsors and overrefreshed PR girls called Gemma."

Marc Merran, who owns Mo*vida, where Mickey Rourke turned up with a different girl almost every night of the week on his recent trip to London, agrees. "People who go out today want good service," he says. "It's all about intimacy, from the moment you turn up to the moment you leave."

Clubbers at Mo*vida can eat a gourmet meal, courtesy of Samy Sass, of the Sass Cafe in Monaco, before rubbing Amex cards, if not shoulders, with the likes of Jay-Z and Robbie Williams.

Alessandra Nerdrum, a DJ at Boujis who runs her DJ booking business and music consultancy called Musicguru, points to changing music tastes to explain the rise of smaller clubs. She says: "Trance music worked well in the past in giant warehouse-style venues but these days people want to listen to more rock/dance crossover, which sounds better and certainly feels better in more intimate spaces."

For DJs and club owners such as Nerdrum and Merran, small also means more beautiful business. Clubbers pay more in smaller, high-quality clubs. Most reserve tables and spend a minimum of £100 on a bottle of wine or spirits.

And when the gloss goes off, it is cheaper to rip up the club and start again under a new name and with a new look. Small clubs only cost £50,000-£100,000 to refurbish. Home in Leicester Square cost £10 million.

"Even the most successful West End nightclubs have to keep reinventing themselves to hold our interest," says Rob Ferguson. "Little Havana, off Leicester Square, becomes Red Cube becomes Ruby Blue. That sort of regular transformation just isn't possible if your fit-out costs run into the millions."

The demise of London institutions, such as the Atlantic and the Hippodrome, marks the end of a social era but, as clubbers join me standing in the cold in Glasshouse Street outside the boarded-up bar, some vow to look on bright side.

James Ramsay, a fortysomething former Atlantic regular, said: "It's a case of back to the future. Twenty years ago there were loads of great small places, such as the Main Squeeze on King's Road, or the old Embassy Club. I'm off to have a martini at - oh, what's that old place called? - Tramp."