The best gay bars in London

This Kingsland High Street hangout is an east London institution loved by everyone from Owen Jones to Princess Julia. It calls itself a ‘multipurpose queer venue’ and that’s no exaggeration: you’ll find drag brunch events in the upstairs bar by day, and forward-thinking club nights in the basement when it gets late. Current regular nights include Happy Endings and Femme Fraiche: names which tell you everything about Dalston Superstore’s fun and subversive vibe.

Rising from the ashes of the dearly departed The Glory, The Divine offers the same anarchic LGBTQ+ energy. A queer venue and performance space on Stoke Newington Road, it’s a place you can nip into for a quick after-work drink: the bar staff offer proper cocktails as well as the usual beers, wines and spirits. But on the other, it’s a platform for forward-thinking queer entertainment. A genuinely mixed space where the vibe is less ‘anything goes’, more ‘everything encouraged’.

This secretive spot next to Dalston Junction station styles itself as a ‘Queer Clubhouse’, and is by quite some distance the fanciest LGBTQ+ venue in the city (and certainly the only one to have featured in World of Interiors). With plenty of conspiratorial nooks and sumptuous, low-lit interiors featuring burlwood cabinets, plaster busts, marbled vanity tables and bespoke leopard print carpets, this place has the rakish air of a branch of Soho House managed by Sebastian Flyte from Brideshead Revisited. 

One of London’s cosiest LGBT+ boozers. Just off the main Columbia Road drag, the Sunday roasts are pretty special - as is the impressive, and every so slightly NSFW wall-art of various hand-drawn, cartoon genitals. Wetherspoons it certainly ain’t.

This east London FLINTA bar is helmed by trans masc musician and DJ Alex Loveless and his Spanish artist partner, Clara Solis. it takes its name from the Spanish term for ‘female truck driver’ – a euphemism for butch lesbians – and is inspired by the Iberian bars that the couple frequent when visiting Clara’s family near Madrid. The vibe is definitely more in keeping with your typical east London small plates spot than your average gay bar: think white-washed walls, and tasteful, hand-painted tiles decorating a bar stocked with neatly-arranged bottles of Campari and biodynamic wine. 

After beloved east London queer pub The George and Dragon was forced to close down in 2015, The Queen Adelaide rose from its ashes a couple of weeks later. Opened by the same owner around a mile up the same road, it has similarly kitsch decor – look out for the famous horse’s head – and the capital’s queer LGBTQ+ hipsters have flocked to it. But in a way, the Queen Addy is also a bit of an upgrade: this time, the merriment spreads out over two floors and there’s a 3am licence at the weekends. Let the party rage on!

Situated directly underneath bold east London arts space Guts Gallery, this Hackney Downs day-to-night bar-slash-cafe bills itself as east London’s ‘FLINTA*-gay living room’. Their cool but low-key vibe make it a great date spot – just as long as you’re cool with running into half the lesbians in east London at the same time. On the menu is a selection of classic cocktails at pretty reasonable prices (the dirty martini is especially good) plus European low-intervention wines, and draught beers from east London’s Queer Brewing.

Located in once-grimy Limehouse, the White Swan is an East End gay staple. After some dubious refurbs, it now has a disappointing modern-yet-dated interior, but some great cabaret shows and cheap drink offers help to make amends. It also plays host to some very fun club diva-centric nights including Girls Night Out + Pop Curious?, a heady celebration of both mainstream and cult pop girls.

To paraphrase a famous saying: after a nuclear holocaust, all that will be left are cockroaches, Cher and the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. This pub-cum-legendary queer performance venue has been threatened for years by greedy property developers, but the RVT Future Committee refuses to let it die. People care about this place because it mixes a rich history – Princess Diana once popped in disguised in male drag, and British drag icon Lily Savage performed here in the ’80s – with excellent regular nights like Bar Wotever and Push the Button. The fabulously atmospheric grade II-listed surroundings don’t hurt, either: quite simply, it’s a place that feels iconic because it is.

Though affectionately nicknamed ‘The Two Sewers’, this long-running LGBTQ+ venue is no dive bar. Instead, it bills itself as ‘south London’s premier cabaret bar and club’ and offers regular drag shows and quizzes as well as club nights. It’s always packed on a Saturday, when DJs in the main bar drop pop bangers and the cavernous back room morphs into a proper club. Located in the increasingly gay enclave of Clapham, The Two Brewers has a more provincial feel than some of London’s LGBTQ+venues. But honestly, that’s a big part of its charm. 

Reclaiming the spot that for 15 years was Kennington’s South London Pacific, The Cock Tavern is the creation of Farika Holden, one-time landlady of much-loved (and much-missed) East London queer pub the Nelson’s Head. And like that former bastion of kitsch, The Cock Tavern is as camp as they come. Rather than rip out the tiki aesthetic of South London Pacific, The Cock has merged it with the Georgian sensibilities of the building, albeit with a modern twist. It’s open Thursday through Sunday, and gets especially packed on Friday and Saturday nights, when the dance floor will fill up from around 9pm till closing time at 2am.

A few years ago, this Vauxhall venue underwent a transformation. Out went the license permitting sexual activity on the premises; in came trendy decor inspired by New York’s Meatpacking District. Open Thursday to Sunday, the Eagle’s large horseshoe bar still attracts plenty of slightly older gay men, but the overall vibe is now a little cooler and more inclusive. It's the new home of cult cabaret night Duckie on Saturday afternoons. And on Sunday nights, the dancefloor welcomes a younger and more fashion-conscious crowd for Horse Meat Disco, one of London's very best club nights. It also has a lovely private beer garden that lays on barbecues in the summer.

Located besides LGBTQ+ cocktail bar Arch and sex shop Fetch, this queer wine bar forms a mini ‘gay strip’ in Clapham, a south London suburb that’s become a real ‘gaybourhood’ in recent years. Like Arch, it benefits from a great outdoor space and books loads of fun and fruity drag shows come summertime: look out for the hilarious Beary Poppins. Queer Claphamites can be found here all week long, but during the weekend the long low venue can get busy, despite being tucked away from the thrum of Clapham High Street. 

This King’s Cross gay pub often gets forgotten about, and that’s a bit of a shame. Yes, it’s a little bit old-fashioned, but that’s a big part of its charm. Its handy location behind the station means it welcomes all comers travelling to and from one of the UK’s largest transport hubs, and on Fridays and Saturdays, there are popular karaoke nights attracting a pretty mixed crowd. Upstairs you'll find a B&B offering more-than-affordable rates for cosy, warmly decorated rooms. Central Station won’t be your first destination in queer London, but if you find yourselves here, you’ll probably have a great time.