Mac Rating: 5.00 | Votes: 1 | Date: 19/06/2026 01:42:00

Established in 1928 as a social club, the Arts Club on Seel Street is one of Liverpool's longest-standing live music venues, in a building whose history reaches back to the 19th-century Liverpool Royal Institute. Over recent decades it has traded under several names, including the Barfly, The Masque and East Village Arts Club. The venue is laid out as a theatre-style main room of around 550 capacity plus a separate loft space holding about 350, both fitted with modern sound and lighting. Across its history it has hosted jazz, rock, indie and electronic nights, touring bands and club brands such as Chibuku and Circus. After a spell run by the Academy Music Group it closed in early 2023, before being reopened in September 2023 by Tokyo Industries, the operator behind venues including Gorilla and the Deaf Institute in Manchester. It sits in the Ropewalks area of the city centre, close to Liverpool Central station and the surrounding cluster of bars and clubs.