Coven

Our tears have only just dried over G-A-Y’s closure, but luckily something has already come along to plug the G-A-Y-shaped hole in our hearts. Taking over the space of the former iconic LGBTQ+ venue, Matthew Jacobs Morgan’s cult club night started life in a Hackney Wick warehouse. It’s now graduated to Old Compton Street and has brought some serious names with it: already, queer icons including King Princess, Jeffrey Hinton and Princess Julia have stopped by. 

The venue isn’t leaning into the occult theme for purely aesthetic reasons, though the glossy black walls and blood-red lighting may beg to differ. Named after a gathering of witches, Coven acts as an alternative assembly for the queer community. Since any witch knows how to master the art of blending in by day, the venue also lives a double-life. By day, it's a sober cafe and co-working space, aimed at rescuing queer freelancers from their kitchen tables. By night, the laptops are cleared for a multi-floor playground packed with live cabaret and techno DJs. 

There's a grand piano for the cabaret sets, a decommissioned fountain filled with queer history books, and a mirror decorated in shells, handy for checking if your outfit’s still holding up by midnight. There’s also a tarot reader stationed in the loos, meaning you can have your drunken heart-to-heart with a mystic instead of a stranger by the sinks