Peña Flamenca de Londres

The Peña Flamenca de Londres is the UK’s largest flamenco club, founded in 1984.   We operate like a peña flamenca in Spain to promote flamenco in a friendly club atmosphere.  

The peña puts on shows most months of the year at the Church Hall of the Holy Apostles on Cumberland Street in Pimlico.  Shows are open to members and non-members. 

Our Honorary President is the world-famous flamenco guitarist Paco Peña.

What we do

We feature the best flamenco artists from Spain and the UK (see below).  Most shows are professional but twice a year we have ‘juergas’, where anyone can apply to our events co-ordinator to perform.  We also host the Feria de Londres in April each year in partnership with Ilusión Flamenco which is just like the feria in Seville, with sevillanas dancing all afternoon!

We also launched the first flamenco dance prize in the UK, The Ron Hitchins Prize for Flamenco Dance, a bursary which we award to up-and-coming flamenco dancers.

The Peña Flamenca de Londres publishes Flamenco Update once a month (replacing Flamenco News Magazine).  The Constitution of the Peña is here.

Committee Members

The Peña Flamenca de Londres is run a committee of volunteers

Flamenco at the Peña

Peña Flamenca de Londres features the best flamenco artists from Spain and the UK.   Most of our events are professional shows.   We also hold ‘juerga’ events in which students and amateur flamencos can perform alongside professionals in a friendly atmosphere like a flamenco peña in Spain.   Over 1,000 professionals and amateur flamencos have performed on our stage over the years!  

We started out in the steamy basement of Covent Garden Community Centre in 1984 and after many years we moved on to other venues such as the Union Chapel in Highbury,  St Aloysius Social Club in Euston, the former Bar Andalucía on Whitfield St in Fitzrovia and the legendary Costa Dorada night-spot on Hanway Street off Tottenham Court Rd.  In addition we have held unforgettable major events at Heaven night club in Charing Cross and at BAFTA in Piccadilly.  We have been at our current Pimlico venue, Church Hall of the Holy Apostles, for over a decade.  

2024 is our 40th Anniversary Year!  

Flamenco Artists Featured at Peña Flamenca de Londres

Many visiting flamenco artists from Spain have performed at the Peña Flamenca de Londres in the past.  We had the celebrity flamenco singer Miguel Poveda, who performed with guitarist Chicuelo when we were at our Union Chapel venue.  Major guitarists we have featured include Águstin Carbonell ‘El Bola’, the nephew of the great flamenco guitarist Sabicas.  The guitarist Paco Peña, is our Honorary President and we have also hosted UK-based guitarist Juan Martín.  We were recently honoured to feature Pepe del Morao, grandson of the great Manuel del Morao and nephew of the late great Moraito Chico who accompanied Pepe la Joaquina, El Faraón.  Up-and-coming guitar star José Almarcha has been very popular at the Peña, visiting twice with his partner, superb dancer Lucía Ruibal.  From Granada we have featured guitarists Emilio Maya, Jesús Álvarez and Manuel Carvajal as well as Marcial Heredia, with his sister, the pop-flamenco singer Chonchi Heredia.  We have partnered with Flamenco Express who have brought great singers to the Peña, such as Antonio ‘El Pola’ and Mateo Soleá.  We were honoured to have highly respected Sevillian flamenco singer Natalia Marín recently at the Peña supporting Ramón Ruíz.  Other singers in the past have included Talegón de Córdoba, Laura Román, Antonio Malena y Manuel de la Malena, Abraham Carmona and the late Víctor el Charico.  We have hosted very many notable dancers performing at the Peña, including Beatríz Morales, Carmen Álvarez, Sara Sánchez, Ángela Granados, Titi Flores, David Romero, Ana María Blanco, Álvaro Guarnido, Victor Fernández, Juan Polvillo and Rebeca Ortega.   Many years ago we had several performances by Group Maya which included Ana Calí and Manuel Liñan long before they became the famous flamencos they are today!

We usually stick to acoustic pure flamenco but sometimes we have staged world music and jazz-flamenco guest artists as guests, such as the Ladino singer Yasmin Levy, jazz singer Jacqui Dankworth, jazz pianist Johnny Crawford and the award-winning Oud player and guitarist Zayn Mohammed.

The Peña supports the many flamenco artists resident here in the UK who have been regulars on our stage over the years, including dancers such as Jesús Olmedo, Felipe de Algeciras, Carmela Romero, Lola Rueda, Anita la Maltesa, Ángela Alonso, Natalia García Huidobro, Noelia Valdés, Carlos Otero, Lola Rueda, Alba Heredia, Sam Quy, Lourdes Fernández, Talia Cohen and many more.  Our regular guitarists include Angus Cruickshank, Mario Basilisco, Ramón Ruíz, Tito Heredia, Jorge Bravo, Jingle, Adrián Solá and Tony Tonks.  And we have some great regular cajón and percussion players in London such as Demi García Sabat and Pablo Domínguez and Ago Fernández. Our regular singers include Jasmine Villalobos, Abraham, Leo Power, Manuel de la Malena, Fernando de Tottenham, Javier Macías, Ulises Díaz, Lola Rueda, Julio López, Carlos Lobo and Olayo Jiménez.

Finally, a word about the London-based flamenco greats we have lost over the years. They put a lot into the Peña’s early success:  El Niño Leon (Lionel Basilisco), Willy Basilisco, Fernando Reyes, Manuel de Cádiz, Rogelio de Malaga, Rafael de Córdoba, El Osito, Felipe Rompesillas, Angel (Andy) Pino, Antonio Navarro and Mauricio.  And special thanks to our much missed former joint Honorary President, Maribel la Manchega, our late Chairperson Vera King and, of course, we remember the fondly flamenco and artistic legend Ron Hitchins.