LGBTQ culture in London

The LGBT community in London is one of the largest within Europe. LGBT culture of London, England, is centred on Old Compton Street in Soho. There are also LGBT pubs and restaurants across London such as in Clapham, Dalston and Kings Cross.^[1][2]

London in LGBT history

See also: Timeline of LGBT history in the United Kingdom

18th and 19th century

In the 18th century, some businesspersons and aristocrats had, for the time, relatively open LGBT lifestyles. Rictor Norton, author of Mother Clap's Molly House: The Gay Subculture in England, 1700–1830 stated that in the 1720s London had more gay pubs and clubs than it did in 1950. LGBT studies pre-1920s were entirely of males caught in scandals.^[3]

20th century

Homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967, but London was an LGBT tourism destination even before then.^[1]

The world's longest running lesbian nightclub, Gateways Club opened in 1936 (it closed in 1985).^[4]

London Gay Pride March in 1974

The UK branch of the Gay Liberation Front (GLF) held its first meeting in a basement room in the London School of Economics in 1970.^[5] The group later organised the first official UK pride protest in 1972,^[6] which has since become an annual event and one of the world's largest of its kind. Although the GLF disbanded a mere 4 years later, it nevertheless spawned off several notable LGBTQ organisations such as Gay News (founded 1972), Gay's the Word (1979, via the Icebreakers group) and London Lesbian and Gay Switchboard (1974, now Switchboard).

Switchboard, one of the oldest UK-wide LGBTQ+ telephone helplines in the UK, was founded in 1974 in Housmans bookshop's basement near King's Cross.^[7]

Mark W. Turner, the author of "Gay London," stated that when Derek Jarman moved to Charing Cross in 1979, it began the process of Soho becoming the centre of the London LGBT community and that by the early 1990s this was "firmly established".^[8]

On May 24, 1989, exactly one year after the Thatcherite anti-homosexuality Section 28 legislation became law, the London-founded charity Stonewall formally announced its formation.^[9] The charity had started its life in Ian McKellen's home in Limehouse.^[9] Today, it is Europe's largest LGBTQ rights organisation.

The Admiral Duncan pub in Soho was bombed on 30 April 1999.^[10] Newspaper articles stated the belief that the bombing was intended to attack the LGBT community; no persons who died in the incident were members of the local LGBT community.^[11]

21st century

LGBT Pride Parade in London in 2024

In 2015, London's LGBT Pride Parade attracted over one million people for the first time.^[12]

Since 2019, London also hosts an annual trans+ pride march. Having attracted 1,500 protesters in the first year,^[13] its attendance grew to more than 20,000 protesters by 2023.^[14] The city is also the home of the annual UK Black Pride celebrations.

Institutions

The UK's first gay and lesbian bookshop, Gay's the Word, is located in Bloomsbury. Due to its lasting legacy of activism and community-building, Historic England has deemed it a site of LGBTQ pilgrimage.^[15] Another LGBTQ bookshop, The Common Press, opened its doors in 2021 in Shoreditch.^[16] London is therefore home to a third of England's LGBTQ bookshops.

The Bishopsgate Institute boasts one of the largest^[17] LGBTQ archives in the UK, including archives from Stonewall, Switchboard, as well as the Lesbian and Gay Newsmedia Archive (LAGNA), which includes over 300,000 press cuttings from the straight press from the 1980s onwards.^[17][18] In addition to this, the Bishopsgate Institute also hosts the Museum of Transology, a community archive focusing on transgender, nonbinary and intersex people. It is the world's largest collection of material culture of its kind.^[19]

The WayOut Club is London's longest running club night for transgender women.^[20]

Since the closure of Above the Stag Theatre,^[21] the King's Head Theatre is the UK's only^{[citation needed]} LGBTQ-centric theatre.

Events

Pride in London on 29 June 2024

Pride

There are a number of prides and marches in London, for different groups and in local communities, these include:

• Pride in London the mainstream event that occurs every summer.
• UK Black Pride – the largest of its kind in Europe – also takes place in London.
• London Trans Pride protest march takes place annually in June or July.
• UK Bi Pride^[22]
• London Dyke March has become semi regular (June in 2025)^[23]
• Waltham Forest Pride^[24]
• Penge Pride picnic in the park^[25]
• Pride in Southwark^[26]

Europe's biggest LGBTQ+film festival, the BFI Flare: London LGBTIQ+ Film Festival happens every spring in London.

The Greater London Authority government promotes LGBT tourism.^[1]

Night life

See also the categories LGBTQ nightclubs in London and LGBTQ pubs in London

Heaven is the largest gay disco club in Europe. It opened in 1979.^[8]

Notable residents

Those identifying as LGBT:^{[citation needed]}

• Alan Carr^[27]
• Alan Turing (1912-1954)^[28]
• Boy George^[29]
• Derek Jarman^[30]
• Dustin Lance Black^[31]
• Freddie Mercury (1946-1991)^[32]
• George Michael (1963-2016)^[33]
• Graham Norton^[34]
• Ian McKellen^[35]
• Kae Tempest
• Marc Almond
• Margaret Clap (operated a Molly house)
• Munroe Bergdorf
• Ncuti Gatwa^[36]
• Oscar Wilde (1854-1900)^[37]
• Paul O'Grady^[38]
• Pete Burns^[39]
• Peter Tatchell^[40]
• Phyll Opoku-Gyimah^[41]
• Sakima^[42]
• Samantha Fox^[43]
• Stephen Fry^[44]
• Tom Daley^[45]
• Travis Alabanza
• Virginia Woolf (1882-1941)
• Will Young^[46]