The best LGBTQ+ and gay clubs in London

This Haggerston hub for forward-thinking queer entertainment hosts a lively mix of cabaret shows and club nights. It also nurtures new talent at regular contests including Man Up!, a platform for emerging and aspiring drag kings. Turn up and dance at its regular free DJ Thursdays, or save your energies for its Saturday night ‘Thirst Trap’, which offers a hectic dancefloor marshalled by East London’s finest drag talent. 

Royal Vauxhall Tavern may not host its flagship LGBTQ+ night Duckie anymore, but the iconic Vauxhall venue still offers plenty of reasons to darken its gloomy Victorian doors, including fetish events, drag shows, lesbian night ‘Butch, Please!’ and monthly pop fest ‘Push the Button’. 

By day, this East End favourite plates up brunch and burgers; by night, it’s London’s best pansexual party spot. The upstairs bar is fun for a warm-up drink, but the basement is where the club action happens. Regular nights include Uncontrollable Urge (eccentric electro on Wednesdays) and SorryNotSorry Sundays (a monthly helping of ‘unapologetic pop’). It’s all very trendy but everyone is welcome: don’t be surprised to see drag queens rubbing shoulders with off-duty dads from nearby Stoke Newington.

Electrowerkz has been hosting cult club nights since it opened in 1987 and describes itself as 'London's oldest alternative venue'. Spread over three floors, it's a gritty warehouse space with an airy inner courtyard, making it perfect for restless clubbers who like to ping from room to room. Post-pandemic, it is home to more queer nights than ever before, including Roast, a 'men-only' rave for bears and their admirers that takes place every second Saturday. Other regular queer nights include House of Trash, which welcomes revellers from across the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and Just Werkz, a Friday night 'dirty disco' that attracts an equally inclusive crowd. Check the website to find out what's on in the coming weeks.

When it opened in 1979, Heaven was revolutionary. London’s first gay superclub, it was the birthplace of Hi-NRG and acid house, and a magnet for queer celebrities. Nearly four decades later, Heaven is no longer cutting-edge, but still offers the UK’s most famous gay night out. On Thursdays it hosts the G-A-Y Porn Idol amateur strip contest, Fridays is filled with ’80s and ’90s cheese at G-A-Y Camp Attack, and Saturdays are reserved for the main G-A-Y club night, often featuring appearances from 'RuPaul's Drag Race' stars. Tourists and the younger crowd love it, and just about every LGBTQ+ Londoner has danced the night away here at least once.

If you thought East London was past its clubbing prime, think again. FOLD, which attracts a predominantly though not exclusively queer crowd, has a reputation for killer programming and a vibe that radiates the raw energy of grassroots clubbing. Located in a non-residential area between Bow and Canning Town, the club is basically a box with a sound system and some LEDs, but once you visit you’ll realise that you really don’t need anything more than that. Founded by a group of artists, DJs and party people known as The Shapes Collective (responsible for Hackney venue The Glove That Fits) the club is made up of a 600-capacity main dancefloor that fills up fast in the early hours of Saturday and Sunday morning. 

This Vauxhall institution had a major facelift a few years ago. Out went the licence permitting sexual activity on the premises and in came trendy decor inspired by New York’s Meatpacking District. Eagle’s large horseshoe bar still attracts many an older, burlier gay gent, but the overall ambience now feels slick and sexy rather than, well, slightly sleazy. 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. Legendary queer collective Duckie now host a daytime party here on Saturday afternoons, bringing an artier crowd to the venue. 

This new LGBTQ+ space is just a handbag’s throw from Euston and Warren Street stations, and offers a lively mix of karaoke nights, drag shows, and club nights with gogo dancers. Split over two floors, it offers drinks in a chilled-out setting on the ground floor, a beer garden, and a more buzzy basement for discos.

Clapham’s Two Brewers isn’t London’s hippest LGBTQ+ venue, but it’s definitely one of the most popular. It’s open seven days a week and has a strong cabaret offering on weekdays, but Friday and Saturday are full-on club nights with drag shows and more pop bangers than Max Martin’s hard drive. You’ll probably have to queue to get in, and you’ll probably have a lot of fun. 

Occupying a prominent spot on Soho’s Chinatown fringes, this large LGBTQ+ venue is regularly voted London’s best. The ground floor offers a bright and modern bar space with video screens playing chart hits; downstairs is a clubbier room where fresh-faced types of all genders dance to pop and EDM. Now called Ku Klub, it has its own side entrance and opens its doors from 10pm until 3am every day. Be prepared to queue for entry on Friday and Saturday nights, safe in the knowledge you’ll be greeted inside by some of London’s best-looking bar staff.

This offbeat, sticky-carpeted social centre isn’t officially a gay club, but its programming has a pronounced LGBTQ+ slant. Go along for offbeat and mercilessly camp drag shows and cabaret nights, followed by sweaty discos on its always-hectic dancefloor. 

Run by Farika Holden, former landlady of beloved but now defunct east London pub the Nelson’s Head, the Cock Tavern is a welcome addition to London’s queer scene. The unique decor reflects the building’s Georgian heritage but merges it with its past life as a tiki bar, creating a space both classy and camp. On Friday and Saturday nights things heat up as a (mainly gay) crowd hit the dancefloor till 2am.

This new LGBTQ+ friendly bar on Kingsland Road is a fun addition to Dalston's late-night scene. It's open until 6am at weekends, which means it picks up plenty of punters when nearby Dalston Superstore closes a few hours earlier, but don't wait until everywhere else is shut to head down: excellent DJs, cocktail deals and drag shows give you plenty of excuses to visit well before dawn breaks.