To celebrate our rich history of gay club culture, we’ve sifted through the hidden treasures, faces and places that have kept us on the rainbow-coloured map. With a new wave of gay club nights like Dalston’s Loverboy, Savage Disco at Metropolis and new drag haunt The Glory breathing life into the scene, we may well be entering a brand new era. Whether this is down to gentrification under the Tory government, assimilation with a straighter crowd as equal rights progress, or the prevalence of dating apps like Grindr and Tinder, gay nightlife is changing. Snapshot of a busy Saturday evening in the front 'disco bar' room. We've also just found out that Hackney's cult pub The George and Dragon will be joining this long, depressing list. The Infamous Two Brewers Gay Bar in Clapham, London. London especially has seen the closure of many of our most beloved queer spaces, from the Joiners Arms to the Black Cap, to Candy Bar, to Area and perhaps soon the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. However, over the last five years it’s hard to deny that the scene has undergone a rapid transformation. First Out cafe in Tottenham Court Road, Candy Bar in Soho, the Joiners. We make sure we’re sillier than our New York counterparts, more anarchic than any night in Berlin and dirtier than the clubbers in LA (or so we like to think). A string of London's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) bars and clubs have closed their doors in the past year. The UK has always been known for its inimitable LGBTQ nightlife.
