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London. 130 gay venues! Daunted? Don't be ... OutUK's Adrian Gillan guides
you around some of the gayest streets on Earth.
I've travelled from San Fran to Gran Can, from Moscow to Glasgow, but I'd have to say that London's gay scene is about as big and cosmopolitan as it gets. However, I should also add that I've seen the capital's gay epicentre increasingly focus on Soho over the last decade, to the detriment of other previously thriving satellite gay villages in areas like Earl's Court, Clapham, Brixton and King's Cross. |
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Our tour begins in the cluster of bars just off The Strand near Trafalgar Square.
Nestle into traditional Retro Bar down a tiny stepped alleyway to find your
gay bearings and chart a queer course. When ready, pop over The Strand and down another
alleyway to the lengthy, modern style-bar that is Bar Aquda with its chic crowd
and pastel lighting. Then flit along the road to Kudos which does good food during
the day although tends to become a tourist trap, as many visitors' first port
of call, by night.
Next cross Trafalgar Square and head up Charing Cross Road towards Soho. Stop off en route at the ambient, candle-lit and galleried Ku Bar, with its young boy-babe crowd. Round the corner and cut down Shaftsbury Avenue, past all the theatres, to approach the capital's homo-heart. The Yard's outdoor space is brimming with talent in summer and its cosy wooden loft packs them in above during winter. Over the way, pose at Rupert Street bar, at Soho's largest street window - preen and be seen! On the same block, as you disappoint the (female) prostitutes, you'll find Prowler Soho, the UK's biggest gay shop - packed with clothes and toys, mags and vids - with its notorious XXX inner sanctum. Over the way the Escape bar draws you in, perhaps the best pre-club venue, where even the doormen are dancing. Back past Rupert Street, next to a row of sex shops, is the basement lair that is Friendly Society with its strange cushioned alcoves and cute bar boys serving up giant pitchers of beer. | |
| Over the way is Village Soho, with a cruisy bar around one side and a relaxed, Bohemian nest around the other. Then: Old Compton Street - one of the world's great queer streets. First up, try the cavernous traditional gay pub on two large levels that is Compton's. Pop over the road to Balans - a bustling bistro with interesting modern cuisine, cute waiters and an even cuter crowd. Next door is Clonezone, which vies with Prowler for your trolley: the naughty stuff's downstairs and - incidentally - above the shop there are some holiday apartments that are modern, well-priced and couldn't be more central. |
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| Round the corner onto Greek Street and check out Sanctuary - perhaps the most stylish gay bar in town, on three contrasting levels: leather and wood upstairs, dance space on the ground floor and cosy barrel cabins downstairs for more intimate soirees. | |
| A few doors down is the Admiral Duncan which was blasted by a homophobe's nail-bomb in Spring 1999: glance in the door and you can see the twisted-metal light sculpture on the ceiling that commemorates the atrocity. For a change of scene, flit along further to the G-A-Y Bar, packed with young disco bunny exhibitionists. |
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Next, cut across Soho Square to The Edge, undoubtedly London's tallest gay bar -
spread over three, or is it four floors, although it feels like a lot more! You're
probably just about ready to hit the clubs by now! From The Edge, you can just
strut around the corner to G-A-Y, a massive venue in an old theatre, complete
with stage and auditorium. It has a young, fairly unpretentious crowd. Fridays is
retro 70s and 80s; Saturdays is more modern chart and pop. If you want something
a bit more alternative, you could take a fifteen minute stagger north east, across
the notorious cruising squares of Bloomsbury - notably Bloomsbury Square itself,
where you can't see the boys from the bushes - to Popstarz for a dose of
drunken student Brit Pop mixed with retro cheese in an old converted cinema.
Or back near the bars on The Strand where we started, try the world-famous Heaven night-club under the railway arches. It has atmospheric spaces for house and R&B, although again, you might find it a bit of a tourist trap. For something more authentic, especially if you're into older, hairy bears, cross the Thames to XXL for good trancy music and one of London's biggest darkrooms. Also south of the river, you'll find a resurging clubbing scene under the arches around Vauxhall, most notably one called Crash; one of the best saunas, Pleasuredrome, at Waterloo - large, busy, clean and modern but also atmospheric; and one of the biggest cruising grounds, on Clapham Common in the bushes beyond the band stand on the south eastern corner, a welcome change from Hampstead Heath to the north, but - as ever - take care! Naturally, that's only the tip of the iceberg - London has over 130 gay venues all said - and, moreover, if you visit this great city and only see the gay scene you're not just gay darling, you're dumb and gay! Updated May 2004. Photography ©2003 Out Europe Ltd and Fred Pieau. All Rights Reserved. | |
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THE LITTLE BLACK BOOK OutUK's Christopher Kelly's London Clubbing Guide
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