LGBTQ Trailblazer TeTe Bang’s Guide to London’s Queer Spaces

The Common Press is a queer, intersectional bookshop, cafe and events space that acts a celebration of the arts and of queer, BIPOC and marginalised folk. There’s everything from poetry to fiction to graphic novels on the shelves, with many titles coming from indie presses and publishing houses. As well as author signings and book launches, the space plays host to a range of events, like yoga sessions, voguing dance classes, tarot readings and poetry nights.

First opened in 1900 as music hall and theatre The Grand, the building has been a cinema, bingo hall and a nightclub over the intervening 125 years, with everyone from Charlie Chaplin to Courtney Love, Jamiroquai to Oasis having graced its stage. The Clapham Grand has retained the same variety ethos from its past, playing host to stand-up, drag shows, bingo, live music and pretty much everything in between. Whether you come down for its legendary Super Bowl party or its Pride extravaganza, you’re always guaranteed a good time.

If Beyoncé has given you country fever, then London Queer Line Dance is a place you can indulge. The collective, which hosts events in Walthamstow and Peckham, is suitable for all levels of experience – if you’re new to two-stepping then you can take advantage of the lessons that run all night long, so you’ll soon be swinging your partner round and round.

Queer House Party has turned lockdown kitchen livestreams into riotous IRL parties, without losing any of the community spirit, commitment to accessibility, DIY radicalism and political activism they had from that very first online event. As well as throwing parties in London, like at No90 in Hackney Wick, QHP performs at festivals across the UK and Europe, with a music policy that centres around playing bangers that’ll get people on the dancefloor.

Run by Alex Loveless and Clara Solis, La Camionera (Spanish for ‘female truck driver’, a euphemism for butch lesbians) is the second lesbian bar and the first FLINTA (female, lesbian, intersex, non-binary, trans, and agender) owned one in London. After a wildly successful pop-up in the basement of Off Broadway and popular crowdfunding campaign, La Camionera moved into a permanent site on Well Street. Taking inspo from Spanish bars, there’s hand-painted tiles, terracotta colours and stained-glass lampshades inside and a little garden out back. Pop by for coffee during the day, natural wine in the evening or one of the regular events, like singles nights and poetry readings.

Queercircle is a new dedicated LGBTQ+ gallery, library and projects space that launched in the summer of 2022, working at the intersection of art, culture and social action. As well as providing a fully accessible safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community, Queercricle has hosted exhibitions by the likes of Michaela Yearwood-Dan, bones tan jones, and the Queer Youth Art Collective, and everything from zine-making to listening events to queer writing workshops.

Founded in 2016, Knockout is a non-profit amateur boxing club for queer and trans people, providing a safe space for people of all genders and abilities to try out the sport. There are regular classes in north, east and central London, with non-contact and sparring sessions available, and the team likes to socialise after every class – it’s about community as much as it’s about getting a sweat on!

It took four years to find the space but Queer Britain, the nation’s first LGBTQ+ museum is open in Granary Square. It’s a fully accessible, inclusive and free-entry space that “will be an essential place for all regardless of sexuality or gender identity, to find out about the culture they have been born into, have chosen or seek to understand.”

Dalston Superstore is a multitasker – it’s a queer bar, club, gallery, cafe, performance and community space, all wrapped into one. By day, there are drag brunches, queer art exhibitions and Essential Vegan cooking up burgers and sandwiches in the kitchen. And by night, regulars like Uncontrollable Urge collective and Femme Fraiche take over as the Superstore transforms into a club/performance space, pumping out disco, electro, techno and house tunes until 4am.

Billed as “London’s duttiest Black Queer night”, Queer Bruk, founded by Akeil Onwukwe-Adamson is a space for Black people of all genders to party and express themselves, with Afro-Caribbean music as the soundtrack and queer Black talent on the decks. Events happen all over London, including at the likes of the Southbank Centre, Oslo and Colours.