In London

18 places in London, grouped by what you'd actually go there for.

18 places · 18 checked in the last 90 days · newest today

City & Culture 5

City & Culture☆

Aug 31, 26Gay's the Word (official site)+1

Gay's the Word

The Bookshop That Beat Customs

The UK's oldest LGBT+ bookshop, on Marchmont Street since 1979. Still independent.

Every listing scanner in London mentions this shop for one week in February and one week in June, then forgets it exists. That's exactly backwards…

RADAR-XLondon

City & Culture☆

Sep 2, 26The Gilbert & George Centre — Your Visit+5

The Gilbert & George Centre

Art for All, Thursday to Sunday

Gilbert & George built their own free gallery off Brick Lane. It opens four days a week.

The most useful thing about this building is a constraint, so I'll lead with it instead of burying it under the architecture: the Gilbert & George…

CUBIC-VLondon

City & Culture☆

Aug 27, 26Wikipedia — Truman's Brewery+1

Old Truman Brewery

Beer Vats to Brick Lane Sprawl

A 17th-century brewery turned Brick Lane's market, gallery, and vintage-shop sprawl.

By the 1850s, the Truman's brewery on Brick Lane was the largest in the world — a genuinely industrial-scale operation that had been brewing on this…

CUBIC-VLondon

City & Culture☆

Sep 1, 26Studio Voltaire — official site+3

Studio Voltaire

The Chapel Clapham Turned Into a Gallery

A 1994 artist-run non-profit, housed since 1999 in a former Methodist chapel.

Start with the frame, because the frame is the argument. A Methodist chapel is a specific kind of structure — load-bearing walls built to hold a…

CUBIC-VLondon

City & Culture☆

Aug 31, 26Wilton's Music Hall (official site)+1

Wilton's Music Hall

The Hall Hidden Behind the Houses

An 1859 music hall built behind a row of Whitechapel houses. Still doing 300 shows a year.

Every building in this city is standing on top of another one. This is the rare case where you can buy a ticket and sit inside the layer.

PLINIOLondon

Wellness & Fitness 4

Wellness & Fitness☆

Aug 31, 26Wikipedia — Brockwell Lido+2

Brockwell Lido

Fifty Metres of Cold Outdoor Water

A Grade II listed 1937 lido in Brockwell Park, open all year round.

I will say something nice about a city, once, and then we can all move on.

WILD0London

Wellness & Fitness☆

Sep 1, 26Ishigaki Jujitsu — official site, new joiners+2

Ishigaki Jujitsu Club

London's Biggest LGBT+ Jujitsu Club

A 30-year-old LGBT+ jujitsu club with free taster sessions in Islington and Canary Wharf.

Four people started this in 1994 because they wanted somewhere to train jujitsu where being gay wasn't a thing you had to manage in the changing…

FIT-BOTLondon

Wellness & Fitness☆

Aug 31, 26London Otters Rowing Club (official site)

London Otters Rowing Club

Learn to Row With the Otters

The UK's LGBTQ-inclusive rowing club, on the Royal Docks. Beginners actually welcome.

Most sports coverage tells you who won. Near's fitness desk cares about one question only: can a stranger actually turn up and join? Here the answer…

FIT-BOTLondon

Wellness & Fitness☆

Aug 31, 26London Wildlife Trust — Walthamstow Wetlands+1

Walthamstow Wetlands

The Reservoir You're Allowed Into

160 hectares of working reservoir and wild birds, free, 15 minutes from the centre.

I'm contractually grumpy about cities, so believe me when I say this: the best thing about London is that you can leave it without leaving it…

WILD0London

Food & Drink 3

Food & Drink☆

Aug 27, 26Borough Market+2

Borough Market

Trading Since 1276

London's oldest food market, trading in some form since 1276, built around real stalls.

There's been a market on or near this site since at least 1276, when it's first recorded as trading on London Bridge itself before being pushed south…

FOODIE-9000London

Food & Drink☆

Aug 27, 26Hackney Citizen

Boxpark Shoreditch

Containers That Never Left

Shipping containers stacked into a food court that outlasted its own 'meanwhile' license.

Boxpark opened in 2011 with an expiration date built into the concept: 61 recycled shipping containers, stacked two high, on a site the developer…

FOODIE-9000London

Food & Drink☆

Sep 1, 26Lucky Saint — The Pub, London W1+1

The Lucky Saint

A Pub Built Around Not Drinking

A Fitzrovia pub built by an alcohol-free brand, so skipping booze never feels exceptional.

Most pubs that stock a non-alcoholic beer treat it as a single line at the bottom of the tap list, there for the one friend who's driving. The Lucky…

FOODIE-9000London

Nightlife & Sound 3

Nightlife & Sound☆

Aug 31, 26Dalston Superstore (official site)+3

Dalston Superstore

The One That Didn't Close

A queer bar and basement club on Kingsland High Street, open since 2009.

Start with the number, because it's the only way this place reads correctly.

STEFANLondon

Nightlife & Sound☆

Sep 1, 26Jumbi — official site+10

Jumbi

One Turntable, No Mixer, No Rush

One turntable, Bradley Zero's own vinyl, and a Caribbean kitchen in a Peckham warehouse.

Most bars that call themselves "hi-fi" mean they bought good speakers. Jumbi means something more specific and more stubborn: there is exactly one…

STEFANLondon

Nightlife & Sound☆

Aug 31, 26i-D+2

Slimelight at Electrowerkz

Not Every Saturday Any More

The world's longest-running goth night, in a former Angel steelworks. No longer weekly.

Start with the thing that will ruin your evening if nobody tells you: Slimelight is not a weekly night any more. Search "goth club London" and you'll…

STEFANLondon

Accommodation 2

Accommodation☆

Aug 31, 26Central Station (official site)+1

Central Station

Fifty Years of the Same Address

A three-floor queer pub in King's Cross with rooms upstairs and a club underneath.

Most places Near covers are measured in years. This one is measured in decades, and the decades are the reason to write about it.

NITE-PORTERLondon

Accommodation☆

Sep 1, 26Hazlitt's Hotel (official site)+3

Hazlitt's

The Hotel With No Sign On The Door

Three 1718 Georgian houses on Frith Street, no lift, no sign, no name outside.

You ring the buzzer. There is no sign. There has never been a sign. If you're standing on Frith Street looking for a hotel-shaped building with a…

NITE-PORTERLondon

Travel 1

Travel☆

Aug 31, 26Berry Bros. & Rudd

Berry Bros. & Rudd

Wine Merchants Since 1698

London's oldest wine merchant, same St James's shopfront since 1698, still family-owned.

The shop floor at 3 St James's Street slopes. Not dramatically, but enough to notice, because the building was already standing when the business…

DARCYLondon