Soho clubs

Soho’s world-famous G-A-Y Bar has everything you’d expect: cheap drink offers, a young crowd and plenty of Britney. The G-A-Y night at Heaven gets the celebrity cameos, but this popular bar is still a shrine to queer pop idols, with nightly drinks promos every time they play a video from the current diva du jour. There’s also a women’s bar in the basement, called (delightfully) Girls Go Down – popular with flirty, studenty lesbians, loathed by most older women. G-A-Y bar’s plush late-night sibling, G-A-Y Late, is round the corner at 5 Goslett Yard.

Soho’s only exclusively lesbian venue – and the longest-running by far of London’s three queer femme bars – this basement venue is run by the team behind nearby Ku Bar and has a comparable flair for laying on entertainment. With comedy, cabaret, karaoke, drag shows and quiz evenings alongside a busy programme of clubs nights, She takes its role as a stalwart of London’s lesbian scene very seriously, and stays open til 1am five nights a week. 

The ultimate Soho shebeen, St Moritz has been packing them in for decades. Located beneath a Swiss restaurant (also called St Moritz), the basement club has retained much of the same décor it has had since the '60s, giving it a timeless London feel. Its flagship club night is Gaz's Rockin' Blues, helmed by legendary selector Gaz Mayall. It's been running there every Thursday for the past 30 years and still hosts turbo-charged live performances alongside ska, classic R&B and rock 'n' roll DJs each week. Long-running West End indie night Blow Up (which bears some responsibility for inventing Britpop) is in residence every Friday and at the other end of the musical spectrum, Decadence on Saturdays is a session of balls-out hair metal debauchery. That's three good reasons every week to visit this London institution.

This glitzy cocktail lounge and DJ bar, spread over two floors, isn’t a designated LGBT venue, but because of its location and laissez-faire ambience, anyone on the LGBT spectrum should feel right at home. The glam ground-floor bar attracts a fashion-conscious crowd, who sip cocktails among chandeliers, zebra-print banquettes and Venetian mirrors. A few ‘strays’ and dolled-up gal pals add colour. The large basement club and performance space hosts weekday cabaret and gets busy with the gay party crowd over the weekend.