Ministry of Sound is selling off its history: The Box’s soundsystem, mirror balls and a piece of the dancefloor
Six Martin Audio stacks that powered the London club’s main room from 2010 are looking for a new owner, with the price on request only. Bidding on the other lots closes on 26 November.
The Box, the main room of Ministry of Sound
London club Ministry of Sound is selling the soundsystem that powered its main room, The Box, from 2010 to 2025. Alongside it, the auction house Wax Poetics is selling the club’s archive: both original mirror balls, a piece of the dancefloor, building plans, flyers and awards.
The details are on the Wax Poetics sale page.
The soundsystem itself is not part of the auction: it is offered by private sale, price on request. Bidding on the other lots opened on 29 October and, according to DJ Mag, closes on 26 November at 20:00 GMT. That is 22:00 in Kyiv.
No dancing on this surface
The sale page jokingly warns: “No dancing on this surface.” Up for bidding are a section of the original dancefloor, the large and small mirror balls, three plans of the Gaunt Street building, flyers from the club’s archive and around 70 slides of club photography. Separate lots include the sales award for Eric Prydz’s Call On Me, the platinum award for the compilation The Annual III and a complete 12-issue run of Ministry magazine.
“Each piece in this collection tells part of Ministry of Sound’s story,” says Wax Poetics co-founder Dave Holt. He singles out the soundsystem: “It’s the equipment through which records become a shared experience, night after night.” Club director Matt Long calls many of the lots true one-offs: “a piece of the club’s history”.
Why the system was retired
The stacks were taken down in January during the refurbishment of The Box for the club’s 35th anniversary and replaced with a KV2 system. According to Mixmag, the DJ booth was also lowered to allow a 360-degree view, and the room’s capacity grew by 200.
Wax Poetics points out that Ministry of Sound was built in 1991 around its soundsystem, not around a guest list. Today the club is No. 24 in the DJ Mag Top 100 Clubs poll.
We wrote about Ministry of Sound’s 35th anniversary in August.
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