The first gay pub I dared set foot now has a rabow plaque. Here’s why that matters | Gary Nunn | The Guardian

Contents:

• THE BT GAY BARS LONDON
• THE BT LGBTQ+ AND GAY CLUBS LONDON
• THE 10 BEST LONDON GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS LONDON
• THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE
• GAY LONDON, LGBTQ+ CLUBS AND EVENTS
• LOST GAY BARS OF EARL’S COURT, LONDON
• TOP GAY CLUBS & BARS COVENT GARN (LONDON)SEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS COVENT GARN
• GAY BARS AND CLUBS LONDON - LONDON FOM
• LONDON GAY CISE CLUBS
• LONDON GAY BARS

THE BT GAY BARS LONDON

24 plac sorted by traveler favorBars & Clubs • Gay BarsTrafalgar Square / EmbankmentGay Bars • Dance Clubs & DissTrafalgar Square / EmbankmentBars & Clubs • Gay BarsLeicter Square / Shaftbury AvenueWhat travelers are saygBier than expected but service was fast and iendly. Brilliant staff (pecially Jack, the fabulo bar manager and cktail maker), fabulo cktails and a relaxed atmosphere for all whether gay, straight or somethg else. The Glory pris self beg one of east London’s bt gay bars, drag hotho, LGBTQ+ performance venu, nightclubs, and curators of London shows, ftivals, ntts and battl.

Comptons of Soho Photo:, Shutterstock Comprisg of two bars and a quieter lounge area, Soho’s Comptons pub has been a staple the cy’s gay scene sce 1986. Halfway To Heaven, Trafalgar Square Loted between Charg Cross Statn and Trafalgar Square, Halfway To Heaven is a tradnal gay pub and baret show bar wh a laid-back ground floor and club-like basement area. Kgs Arms, Soho Loted on Soho’s Poland Street and open sce the 1700’s, the iendly Kgs Arms was one of the first spots Soho to serve the gay muny, billg self as a ‘gentlemen’s bar’ the 1970’s.

THE BT LGBTQ+ AND GAY CLUBS LONDON

This baret and avant gar performance club, scribed as ‘a place given up to gaiety’, was for all tents and purpos the first ‘gay bar’, as we would unrstand today.

It didn’t take long before this gentlemen-only tablishment beme a renowned spot for homosexual liaisons, although had a mixed crowd, terg to civil servants and queer men alike.

Letters sent to police at the time scribe the space as a ‘renzvo for homosexual perverts’, wh terracial mglg and relatnships siarly chastised.

THE 10 BEST LONDON GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS LONDON

Frankly, I’d have served a prison jt for him to hold my hand, like he did his off-whe Vxhall Nova on the drive there, breakg only to change, he took me for strawberry cir the Gloucter, a pub at the park’s edge, takg my tremblg hand his and reassurg me: “It’s actually a gay bar.

On Sunday, the first a new seri of rabow plaqu will be stalled at the Gloucter – now the Greenwich Tavern – cementg s place gay home the workg-class Medway area of Kent, where we met when he sold me a phone cred rd at the lol petrol statn, “queers” like were wily perceived as predatory, perverted, spic or simply scum.

THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS

”After the strawberry cir, served by a man a tight whe vt – the only other gay man I’d seen real life – the squiggly summer sunlight ma a strobe effect through the park’s tre. The first time I saw wh him, when I was 18, I realised he had echoed the love story of the two protagonists, who also had their first kiss the twilight of Greenwich Park’s tre, and their first experience of a gay pub at the Gloucter.

The explanatn for his obssn is now clear: there was such a pcy of same-sex love stori that this was the first time many young people had seen a same-sex kiss, or peeked si an actual gay bar after dark.

LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

The project remds people “that we have always been here, good tim and bad, ” David Robson of the London LGBT+ Foms’ Network said when the plaqu were film and my own story were workg-class gay love: not dandyish and sheltered by the polse of privilege, but the btal realy of beg perceived a non-mascule boy. It was a powerful and rarely told tersectn – and one that, even more rarely, ends rather happily, wh a betiful scene of fiance and acceptance played to a Mama Cass waltz on the sk I disvered that I wasn’t the only wi-eyed baby gay my boyiend had been chasg through those ancient chtnuts that summer.

For me, the plaque honours that private moment as well as the shared history of the LGBTQ+ ’s the msage I’d impart to anyone who thks such symbols are meangls, as the unique social history of the UK’s gay bars is endangered by gentrifitn, hook-up apps, the st of livg crisis and even assiatn. Bars & Clubs • Gay BarsTrafalgar Square / EmbankmentGay Bars • Dance Clubs & DissTrafalgar Square / EmbankmentBars & Clubs • Gay BarsLeicter Square / Shaftbury AvenueLearn more about this ntentTours, activi and experienc bookable on Tripadvisor, ranked g exclive Tripadvisor data cludg reviews, ratgs, photos, populary, er preferenc, price, and bookgs ma through travellers are saygBier than expected but service was fast and iendly. Way back the 1970s and 1980s Earl’s Court was THE place to be, wh a btlg gay scene offerg a number of different f and bars to meet a stranger or dance the night away.

GAY LONDON, LGBTQ+ CLUBS AND EVENTS

The Copabana (or jt Copa’s if you’re the know) opened on Earls Court Road the late 1970s, and is remembered as the first public nightclub aimed at a gay clientele. Though long had a reputatn as a bohemian haven, and attracted a mixed clientele that clud many queer people, wasn’t until the 1970s that the bar officially beme a gay bar. It was here that Clone Zone, the cha of gay superstor, had s fledglg start, settg up a stall si the bar where they sold imported merchandise to ctomers.

LOST GAY BARS OF EARL’S COURT, LONDON

If you need any more proof that Earl’s Court was the centre of gay London life the 1980s then you need look no further than the celebry rints of the area.

The mols didn’t reprent buildgs of any great distctn, but to members of the dience they were a faiar lp: the Black Cap, the Joers Arms, the Glass Bar, the Lbian and Gay Centre. ”The loss have clud fixtur of the London scene: the Coleherne Earl’s Court, which had been gog sce the 1930s; Islgton’s olst gay pub, the Kg Edward IV, and the Black Cap Camn, which closed 2015 after 50 years.

TOP GAY CLUBS & BARS COVENT GARN (LONDON)SEE ALL THGS TO DOGAY CLUBS & BARS COVENT GARN

Some – like the London Lbian and Gay Centre (LLGC), which closed 1992, and First Out Cafe, swept asi by the Crossrail velopment – functned as muny spac durg the day. The LLGC, set up a poultry facily Smhfield by the Greater London Council the early years of the Aids epimic, faced hostily, not least om the people who might have helped to nvert – Campk says simply fdg a non-homophobic nstctn pany was a stggle. Once the centre was su, however, hosted a dis, fe, bookshop and a women-only floor, as well as spac for mpaigng … a diary om the London Lbian and Gay Centre.

“I ed to tune to ble om the next-door neighbours and I’d stay up till midnight to watch 10 mut of Freeview off the gay channel, which had footage of plac like Heaven and the Fridge.

GAY BARS AND CLUBS LONDON - LONDON FOM

Photograph: Courty the artist and Southard ReidSahib’s Helix IV memorialis yet another kd of space: Charts gay sna, Shoredch, which closed 2016.

LONDON GAY CISE CLUBS

Gay Bars Covent GarnAll thgs to doBars & ClubsComedy ClubsBar, Club & Pub ToursDance Clubs & DissBlu Clubs & BarsGay Clubs & BarsJazz Clubs & BarsPiano BarsWe BarsSohoTrafalgar Square / EmbankmentShoredchBloomsburyClerkenwellCovent GarnHolbornSouthwarkIslgtonLeicter Square / Shaftbury AvenueWimbledonEast End / East LondonGood for CouplBudget-iendlyGood for KidsGood for Big GroupsHoneymoon spotGood for Adrenale SeekersHidn GemsFree EntryAdventuroGood for a Ray Day1 place sorted by traveler favor. Gay Amerin artist Dennis Severs spent 20 years turng his home to a livg mm, wh the townhoe’s 10 rooms reprentg snapshots the life of an imagary fay between 1724 to 1914. Where to go at nightRoyal Vxhall TavernOne of London’s olst survivg gay venu, the Royal Vxhall Tavern has been an entertament statn sce the 1860s.

Highlights clu the John Waters-spired lbian theme night Female Trouble; the d-visual queer spectacular Outré Voyage, the male-centric mic nights Homodrop and Dissodoma, the by-femm/for-femm monthly Femmi-Errect, and the hedonistic Happy Endgs, which turns Superstore’s unisex loos to a pop-up rave.

LONDON GAY BARS

In Hackney Wick, near the Olympic Park, the monthly gay rave Chapter 10 is at Bloc and Pxssy Palace tak place at Mick’s you need fuel on your night out, Dalston is packed wh late-night eateri. They clu Admiral Dunn, a historic pub wh drag shows most nights of the week; Ku Bar, a cktail lounge and club popular wh gay men; the lbian bar She Soho and the big urtyard bar The Yard. Although there have been high-profile closur recent years, remas a clubbg hotspot – particularly popular wh gay the banks of the Tham the south-wt of the cy, Vxhall has a history of entertament.

Agree that the 3 ma areas are Soho, Vxhall and Shoredch - though there are a stterg of other gay pubs / clubs plac like Clapham (The Two Brewers and the Kazbar); Greenwich; Camn etc.... In Soho go to Old Compton street and pop to any one of the gay bars there (GAY beg the easist to spot) and pick up a py of Boyz magaze and QX magaze (both are ee).