Who knows what life will be like once we’re released from house arrest? What will the so-called new normal look like? What’s certain is we’re all Zooming, streaming and buying online like never before. This was already the direction of travel and it just got turbo-charged. How many bricks and mortar businesses will survive is anyone’s guess.
And then there are the most ancient of games – cruising, coupling and canoodling – and the arenas where these rituals are played out. From an LGBT perspective, swiping right had already forced many a gay boozer to call time for good. Why bother with the faff and expense of propping up a bar hoping for a chance liaison when you can order in with free delivery? But these places aren’t just about a Saturday night takeaway, they also provide a community hub and a safe haven from a sometimes hostile world.
An old friend sent me – via WhatsApp, ironically – these amazing images of some of London’s most iconic gay pubs, venues with long and infamous pedigrees. I don’t know who took the pictures so they can’t be credited but they brought back a flood of memories of my gloriously misspent past.
Ladies and gents and all those in between, I give you the seven sisters. As the old saying goes, use them or lose them.
- The Kings Arms: famous for bears, their admirers and Jivin’ Julie’s sunday night karoake
- The Eagle: the youngest of the seven sisters
- The Admiral Duncan: made famous by a nail bomb which, in 1999, killed three and maimed many others
- Halfway to Heaven: where Liam first caught my roving eye 14 years ago
- The Duke of Wellie: always my favorite Soho boozer right next door to my least favourite, Rupert Street
- Comptons: Soho’s boozy, cruisy bar frequented by likely lads from all over the world
- The Royal Vauxhall Tavern cabaret bar and the eldest sister by far. Listed status may not protect it from demolition.
My mother watched drag shows there in the sixties
