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
• GAY BARS AND CLUBS SOHO
• THE BT LGBTQ+ AND GAY CLUBS LONDON
• THE DOS & DON'TS OF GAY CLUBBG
• THE FIRST GAY PUB I DARED SET FOOT NOW HAS A RABOW PLAQUE. HERE’S WHY THAT MATTERS
• THE 10 BEST LONDON GAY CLUBS & BARSGAY CLUBS & BARS LONDON
• CHIGO GAY BARS
• LONDON'S LANDMARK BUILDG DOTTED WH STRIP CLUBS, GAY VENU TO TURN TO MOSQUE

THE BT GAY BARS LONDON

Though the number of LGBT+ venu London has seen a cle the last or so, the cy's gay scene isn't ailg yet – fact, a handful of excellent new venu have opened recent years around the cy. The hight ncentratn of LGBT+ spac n still be found around Old Compton Street Soho, a former red light district that's been heavily gentrified recent years, but remas London's gay heartland.

This Soho stalwart tends to attract a slightly olr crowd of gay guys and has a reputatn for beg cisy. It’s closed on Mondays and Tudays, but hosts a r Sunday pub quiz and gets pretty packed on Friday and Saturday nights when the small dancefloor fills up wh a largely, though not exclively, gay male crowd.

GAY BARS AND CLUBS SOHO

Loted Clapham, a 15-20 mute tube ri om the cy centre, this tradnal gay pub-club is a perennial favoure wh LGBT+ Londoners who love an unpretent party.

Keepg the gay flame burng out wt is this tradnal gay pub Ealg, a leafy suburb that’s about 25 mut by tube om central London.

There are gay venu most ci and towns. ’s most remote gay bar) you uld probably fd one place to wet your whistle. Chanc are, your first tentative steps out onto the London queer scene were ma or around Old Compton Street, the shg of London’s mastream gay culture.

THE BT LGBTQ+ AND GAY CLUBS LONDON

The inic Royal Vxhall Tavern is one of the olst gay venu the cy and ss, as you may have gused, Vxhall. Chanc are you probably won’t be starg down that barrel of that gun a gay club eher then pal.

Csg a venue to ll out an expensive plummer bee you and your pals thought ’d be a great plan to smash up the toilet after your first h of gay gra gak isn’t exactly the pnacle of allyship. Gay men do not have any more right to touch a woman’s breasts than a straight man whout nsent. It’s been 50 years sce homosexualy was crimalised this untry.

THE DOS & DON'TS OF GAY CLUBBG

A mere 30 years later, sectn 28 was passed - makg an offence to promote (talk about) homosexualy schools and only 5 years ago same sex marriag were not legal.

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. Gay pubs are far more than bars; they’re refug.

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

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.

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

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.

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.

CHIGO GAY BARS

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.

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

Like many workg-class, closeted gay boys, I’d hi unr the glovebox of my boyiend’s Nova when we drove back om the park, lt anyone saw. It whispered to ckney-accented gay boys like me: there are others like you.