As was the case in Sydney, a random group of my extended friends happened to all be visiting at the same time as I was. Unfortunately, we never quite ended up all being in the same place at the same time.
This was partly because Shaun (a friend from New York who now lives in London) and I decided to concentrate our efforts on bars, while Jim and Leif, visiting from San Francisco, preferred to focus on clubs; and partly because London offers a wider range of gay nightlife options than, I would guess, anywhere else on the planet right now. If the four of us had all been out on the town in New York instead of London, we probably couldn't have avoided bumping into each other.
Here's a quick rundown of the bars I went to, which will give you a sense of that variety. And don't forget that the whole Vauxhall scene, the most well known part of London's club world, is entirely in addition to this.
WEDNESDAY:
Compton's -- After my first day at work I was looking for a happy-hour scene a la Open Cafe in Paris. This was the closest thing I found to it, and it wasn't very close. An unpretty crowd in an unpretty old pub.
G.A.Y. -- This is the Soho (Old Compton Street) establishment of this name, not the club in the former Heaven space. It's two narrow, oblong floors with lots of screens showing music videos, packed (on a midweek night, mind you) with children. Very beautiful children, for the most part, but I swear the average age had to have been about 20. I don't think I've ever felt quite as out of place because of my age as I did there. But I stayed for an hour and a half because it was the only place showing any sign of life that night.
THURSDAY:
The Box -- Friends had recommended to me this restaurant-cum-bar on the Covent Garden side of Charing Cross Road, but when I stopped in it seemed to be more of a restaurant than a bar, with groups of friends sitting around at tables. Didn't seem like the kind of place for a visitor traveling solo, so I didn't stay.
The Duke of Wellington -- If you're looking for a gay traditional English pub, this is the place, much better than Compton's. Definitely a bear crowd (think: Cafe Cox/Paris or Gym Bar/New York) but packed at happy hour, and friendly. Also the only bar on my entire itinerary that served traditional English beer.
The Village -- Next door to the Duke of Wellington, this is an uninteresting black-box sort of bar, notable only for having a more diverse crowd than the Welly.
Barcode Soho -- A branch of the Vauxhall place, and to my taste much more enjoyable. Pretty empty when I arrived about 9:30, but started filling up about 45 minutes later. The DJ, Ben Jamin, was playing a lovely synthesis of classic '90s vocal house ("Sing It Back" and suchlike) with modern trance and electronica. No dancing, unfortunately, at least not officially. The place has a dance floor in the basement but it was not open. The music plus the cute and extremely friendly crowd meant I ended up staying longer and drinking more beer than I had planned, and closing the place at 2:30 in the morning.
FRIDAY:
For something completely different, Shaun took me out to the Shoreditch area of East London, which is the local equivalent of Williamsburg. We stopped first at the ...
George & Dragon -- an old pub that someone had clearly spent hours cluttering carefully with artfully artless arrangements of junk. Very mixed crowd here, no dancing or memorable music, so we stayed only long enough for one drink. Then walked a few blocks to ...
Joiner's Arms -- This is a larger space, bare white walls with a pool table (later removed to make a dance floor) and some butt-sprung couches around the edge. Looks more like a Brooklyn bar than a pub and feels like one too. Filled up with a hottish, youngish, extremely drunk crowd. Shaun said the place could get frisky but I didn't see it; on this night, at least, it was more about people out with their friends (although they were willing to talk/dance/drink with strangers as well). We're used to DJs like Susan Morabito or Abel who, each in their own way, pilot their parties smoothly into the sky like a 747 taking off on a well-paved runway. This was more like a bush plane in Africa, the propeller backfiring, the cargo door taped shut, that takes off from a grass field in a thunderstorm but finally does manage to limp into the air, and then climb more and more confidently. I didn't get the DJ's name, but one mix was the most creative I heard all weekend: it took the "Beach Ball" bass-and-drum riff, overlaid the piano and guitar hook from U2's "New Year's Day," and lay yet a third song I didn't recognize on top of that.
SATURDAY:
The Welly, again -- a bit less crowded than Thursday but a more diverse crowd.
Rupert Street (I think that was the name) -- midway between the Welly and Barcode, this is the local equivalent of G Bar or Vlada, the place for the young cuties to stand, model and cruise. This is definitely the sort of crowd I like, though I did notice a few more tweezed eyebrows and fashion victims than you might find in the States. Very cruisy but nothing really developed from that; but then, it was early (10'ish).
Barcode, again -- Shaun thought we should go back here to see the downstairs club. It's a low-ceilinged room, about the size of The World in Vancouver but squarer and with much better lights. Good music, standard London trance. Didn't get very crowded, which surprised Shaun. We had thought about finishing the night here, but the lack of people started us thinking about moving on, and then the thought was completed when I saw two or three guys stumbling around, dead drunk and barely on their feet. I'm pretty sure it was alcohol, not drugs, but the effect on my psyche was the same as seeing someone fall out. So we left and went to ...
XXL -- The one real club we attended all night, this is in the Southwark area (south end of London Bridge), not Vauxhall, but physically it's pretty much the same idea, a set of interconnected rooms built under the arches of a railway viaduct. (Why the 19th-century railway builders of London chose brick archwork, while those of New York chose tunnels or beaten-earth fills, and all the consequences that would flow from that choice a century later, is a subject unto itself.) It's mostly a bear event, and if you know me you know that my taste doesn't generally run in that direction, but I have to say that 10% of this crowd was astonishingly hot. The music was good, the scene was fun; I'm glad that I finished up my night there. I might even go back sometime.
