Gay clubs 1960s england
Timeline of London Bars and Clubs
1720s
The Golden Ball (Bond's Stables, off Chancery Lane).
Jenny Greensleeves' Molly House (Durham Yard, off the Strand).[1]
Julius Caesar Taylor's Molly House (Tottenham Court Road).[2]
Plump Nelly's Molly House (St James's Square, St James's).[2]
Royal Oak Molly Residence (Giltspur Street, Smithfield)[2]
Three Tobacco Rolls (Covent Garden).
1724Mother Clap's Molly House, closed 1726 (Holborn).
1770s
Harlequin (Nag's Head Court, Covent Garden)
1800s
1810The White Swan, Vere Street (Vere Street)
1832Admiral Duncan (54 Old Compton Road, Soho)
The Hundred Guineas Club (Portland Place)
1866 The Coleherne, gay from the 1950s?, closed 24 September 2008 (261 Earls Court Road, Earls C
‘Their Story’ LGBTQ+ in Soho, London
Soho, London is the heart of the city’s LGBTQ+ scene and we are proud to be one of the sponsors for the Westminster LGBT Forum, based in Soho. The annual London Pride (est. 2023) attracts over one million people and Soho plays an important part in the celebrations.
The LGBTQ+ part of the Soho scene originates assist to the secret clubs of the area where people often met despite, the risk of prosecution, to celebrate the autonomy to be oneself.
London in the 18th century was not only witness to a multicultural revolution, but a new concept of sexuality was being developed here. Late night venues could be found in Soho and Piccadilly, places where people challenged the conventional views of sexuality within society.
At the beginning of the 19th century, Soho went through a massive transformation with Piccadilly Circus being expanded and theatres and music halls being built around Shaftesbury Avenue. With this expansion came an embracing of the arts and a bohemian style of life; it also saw the development a thriving sex industry. Both male and female brothels could be launch on the streets of the area that was once recognizable as ‘St
Too often, gay bars don’t survive the threats of gentrification and criminalisation. Yet some last elongated enough to change into important institutions in their own right.
This is correct of the Nightingale, one of many queer landmarks in Birmingham.
In 1967, 2 men named Laurie Williams and Derek Pemberton paid £600 for ownership of the Nightingale, a rundown Indian restaurant on Birmingham’s Camp Hill.
It was a landmark year for British gay history, thanks to the passage of a bill decriminalising homosexuality in private. It was also a bittersweet victory, one which came with a higher age of consent for gay men, limited jurisdiction (the bill applied only in England and Wales) and harsher punishments for gay people caught on the streets.
At the hour, there were very few places for LGBTQ+ communities to express or examine their sexuality in public safely. Gay affection shown in straight pubs often led to aggression and harassment.
There were a handful of gay club nights, but they came with the chance of being raided by police or exploited and overcharged by landlords.
Williams and Pemberton set out on a mission to build a viable alternative in the form of the Nightingale.
Haydon Bridge's history of same-sex attracted clubbing in London
The 60's - In which queers shift their traditional allegiance from prostitutes to the black community; Italy and France influence the approach of the secretly lgbtq+ mod movement; and the partial legalisation of homosexuality makes no difference to the London queer scene - or does it ?
Peter Burton (centre) and his sister Pamela and friend Stevie posing in D'Arblay Street 1967
where we went
Are you ready for the story of male lover clubbing in – more than 50 years of sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll?
Yes, we really have been partying for that long - even before the first discothèque opened in 1960.“There’s a great myth that gay life didn’t commence until says Peter Burton, who ran
the male lover mod club, Le Duce, which writer Alkarim Jivani calls “one of the trendiest places to be seen in .”
“Amber”, now 71, arrived in in 1948 at the age of 13. He can reel off a list of queer bars in in the 50s:“The Alibi, the Huntsman, Take 5, The Apple, No. 9, the Casino. You didn’t have to go .
We had more places then than now.”
Most of the bars were in basements and attics