G-A-Y Bar is closing – Soho just got a lot less fun

After nearly three decades of vodka shots, pop anthems, and late-night hookups under neon lights, Soho’s legendary G-A-Y Bar is shutting its doors for good this weekend. London’s queer scene just lost one of its most iconic landmarks, the same week we found out Corsica Studios is also closing its doors.

The bar, opened by nightlife heavyweight Jeremy Joseph in the mid-90s, has been a glitter-soaked safe haven for generations of LGBTQ+ Londoners. It’s where Madonna performed 25 years ago, where Pride spilt onto Old Compton Street, and where you could belt out Britney at 2am without judgment. But as of this Sunday, it’s gone.

The reason is a cocktail of rising rents, post-pandemic financial pressure, and what Joseph describes as the slow erasure of Soho’s queer identity. “Old Compton Street used to be the gayest street in London,” he said in an emotional Instagram post. “Now it’s lost that LGBT identity.”

Joseph, who also owns Heaven nightclub near Charing Cross, has spent the past two years locked in a brutal rent arbitration with Heaven’s landlords. The result came through recently, and while he’s managed to keep Heaven afloat, it came at the cost of G-A-Y Bar. “We had to make a choice,” he said. “Better to protect one venue with a future than lose both.”

It’s a pragmatic decision, but also a symbolic one. G-A-Y Bar’s closure isn’t just the end of a party; it’s another chapter in the slow, painful shrinking of London’s queer nightlife. More than half of the capital’s LGBTQ+ venues have shut down since 2006. It’s making London feel like a city that seems increasingly allergic to joy after dark.

So if you’ve ever danced, kissed, cried, or come out under the pink lights of G-A-Y, now’s the time to say goodbye. The bar will be fully open this Saturday and partially open on Sunday, and then it’s lights out.

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