Royal Vauxhall Tavern

About this place Royal Vauxhall Tavern

The Royal Vauxhall Tavern is London's oldest continuously operating gay venue — a pub and performance space that has served the LGBTQ+ community since the 1940s, when it was a post-war gathering point for gay men at a time when every other aspect of their lives required secrecy. The building is a Victorian pub of 1863, now listed Grade II by Historic England specifically for its LGBTQ+ heritage significance — a designation that confirmed, in the most official possible terms, the importance of gay pubs to British cultural history. The RVT's history reads like a chronicle of British gay culture: the pub where Princess Diana is said to have attended a drag night in disguise in the 1980s; the venue that launched Lily Savage (Paul O'Grady's drag character); the home of Duckie, one of London's longest-running alternative queer club nights (every Saturday). Today the Tavern is both a heritage site and a living venue. The bar is a proper Victorian pub. The performance space hosts cabaret, comedy, drag and live music. Duckie on Saturday remains the essential South London queer event. The Vauxhall location puts it at the centre of the circuit club district — Eagle, Fire and the other clubs are within five minutes' walk.