A new multi-story queer club has opened up in Soho’s legendary former G-A-Y bar
Finally, some good news about Soho's nightlife
One of the greatest tragedies of the cost of living and victim of the cruel London nightlife death knell was Soho’s iconic G-A-Y bar. The queer venue closed nine months, after 22 years in operation. Now, the site is set to be home to an ambitious new queer club, Coven: Headquarters.
Taking over the space on 30 Compton Street, Coven: Headquarters will be set over a whopping five stories and proudly claims that it will be a space for every letter of LGBTQIA.
Coven: Headquarters started life as a club night in Hackney Wick in 2025, started by Matthew Jacobs Morgan. Luckily and perhaps unsurprisingly, the night was seriously popular and its Soho run will be its first permanent home.
Whilst Coven is set to be a new era (qu-era) for the site, it aims to honour the legacy of the venue’s former inhabitant, with nods and touches to G-A-Y throughout the building. In the main room, you can find an an antique fountain sitting centrally, filled with books on queer history. There’s also a couple of accessories brought over from the club night’s original Hackney Wick venue, like the battered shell mirror on one of the upper floors.
As well as the classic nightclub style evenings with a roster of rotating DJs, there is also live music and cabaret evenings. The club will also have a schedule of themed nights including Afrobeats and techno. However, it’s not solely an evening raver gig, with Coven open during the daytime too. You’ll find a cafe and community hub with plenty of space for people who are looking for somewhere to work. And if you need a quick break from tapping away at your laptop and need to find some inspiration, why not pop over to the in house tarot reader who also works in the space from 5pm till late. A personalised prophecy whilst you party is something we can get on board with.
With legendary shoes to fill, Coven: Headquarters opened up at the former club earlier this week. Jeremy Joseph who founded G-A-Y cited financial pressures (read: rising rent costs) as the reason for its closure, and the site went on sale in 2025 with a rent of £410,000 per year. Joseph also criticised Soho saying it had “lost its vibrancy”. However, the former site’s sister venue Heaven nightclub is still operating as normal.
As part of the venue announcement, he said: “We as queers can make space for each other in a cardboard box – but luckily, we now have a five-storey building with a W1 postcode…Spaces where people can come together safely, joyfully and truthfully matter more than ever."
It’s sort of a full circle moment for Morgan who said on Instagram that “This building [G-A-Y] was the first gay bar I ever went to”, and is now bringing his legendary club night to the Soho institution, and injecting a little bit of queer joy back into the dying nightlife.
Skip the search — follow Shortlist on Google News to get our best lists, news, features and reviews at the top of your feeds!
