Whilst still safe enough, and not in quite as dilapidated a state as some of the tattier London venues I've seen, it was still quite obvious that this old town house was now several squat parties down the line, and had seen healthier days.
3 rigs, one on each floor. On the ground floor, in what seemed to be the most spacious room, Enginearin' played acid techno and rave, keeping a good crowd all night. Upstairs, dark, strobe-lit drum and bass from the Junkchun Ten rig kept everyone happy. Then there was another, quite small room up on the top floor, which I'm not quite sure if this room was intended as a chill-out room or not, but there were a variety of different musical styles being played for the rig situated there, on which DJs from several different Reading crews could be spotted playing throughout the night.
This was an enjoyable party, with much of the regular Reading party crowd (always a friendly bunch of munters) there. It did get a bit squashy though. By about 3am, every room was so packed that there wasn't even enough room to dance - just bounce on the spot and try not to collide with too many other peeps. Despite all the inevitable pushing, shoving and stumbling, the party atmosphere remained favourable, and if anything it probably added to the overall friendliness, as everyone just smiled and carried on regardlessly, making the best of the situation. I stuck around as others left early to escape the crush, and by about 5am the party was still banging, but with a little more breathing space it became more comfortable. It was nice to see such a stong turnout, but the party really needed a nice big empty warehouse to accomodate all of the crowd.
My two housemates who work nights came along and joined the party after they'd clocked off their shift at about 6:30am, bringing a few of their workmates along with them. The party was still going strong then, and about 30 mins later I said goodbyes and got dragged off homeward bound by my mates.
Spar
