The Yard Bar’s safe, but what about the rest of Soho?
Soho lovers breathed a sigh of relief last night with the news that one of the area’s most iconic venues, The Yard Bar, is safe for now.
After an impassioned campaign by venuegoers, local residents and celebrities to ‘Save the Yard Bar’, the Westminster City Council last night refused the application for development to The Yard. The application would’ve seen the bar, famed for its expansive courtyard, making way for a block of luxury flats.
So The Yard is safe – but is Soho? As more and more venues are threatened with closure, celebrities including Stephen Fry and Benedict Cumberbatch have united for a campaign urging the government to ‘Save Our Soho’.
In an in-depth feature for Attitude’s latest issue, writer and Soho regular Kalvin Ryder takes Attitude on a tour of the historic central London gay scene as the bulldozers move in…
From catwalking down the wonky and cracked Old Compton Street, receiving that knowing look from the bears and daddies smoking outside Comptons to clattering into Balans at 4am for breakfast after wild drinks at Heaven, Soho has simply always been home for London’s LGBT community.
However taking a walk around Soho today you may liken yourself to poor old Lola rocking up at the Copacabana. Coming in via Walkers Court, you’ll be disappointed. Gone are the tacky ‘Girls Girls Girls’ neon lights which lit up the affectionately named ‘Porno Alley’ to be replaced with boarded up windows, grim grey shutters and a ghastly retro coffee shop!
Walking on to Brewer Street expecting to be bombarded by the fresh-out-of-college flyer boys pulling me into Escape, I’m greeted to nothing, those grey shutters ever-present and the rainbow neon lights spelling out Escape have had the plug pulled on them… Just like that. A little further on is the legendary Madam JoJo’s, which has played host to drag artistes such as Lily Savage, Regina Fong and even Katie Price! But now, nothing. Over half a century of mischief and misdemeanours and game over, closed for business.
Looking back on the closure of Madam JoJo’s, Queen of Soho Dusty O is very clear on how this will affect her beloved home: “It’s absolutely horrendous. You’re ripping out one of the main players that made the area special. It’s like ripping the heart out and expecting it to work in the same way. It won’t. It’s been destroyed for greed.”
For the community of Soho, it is a very raw topic. Lady Lloyd (pictured, right) not only works in Soho, but was also one of its longterm residents. “I moved to Soho when I was 17 and I’ve lived there ever since until eight months ago when I had to leave due to the planned works,” she says. “My flat was above Soho Books on Brewer Street. My old flat is going to be the ones with the helipads on top. Life was really good fun and pretty full on. I was robbed about five times. It was kinda dangerous, kinda fun. I was friends with all the prostitutes and all the girls I knew loved it. They loved the money, the atmosphere and the nightlife. They’d come up for cups of tea and we’d chit-chat out of the windows. It was Soho! Now I’m not there it’s a bit lonely. It’s boring.”
Co-owner of Dalston Superstore, Dan Beaumont, feels the spaces in Soho need to be fought for. “It’s hard for people to reconcile that there might be people who want to run an underground club night in somewhere which should be prime real estate,” he says. “It’s a lot of powerful pressure to try and stand against.”
These days the gay scene is increasingly moving east. Dalston Superstore is a real landmark for gay clubbing, with a bar upstairs and a restaurant, low-fi art gallery and club downstairs. “Soho got very commercial, the sort of music you would hear wasn’t very exciting to me. It was dated,” says Beaumont. “A big milestone was when Ghetto closed down. It was so central and played those alternative sounds. When we opened a gay bar in Dalston six years ago, people thought we were crazy opening one there. We got a great deal on somewhere, to do the same thing in Soho would have cost us many, many times more.”
But Lady Lloyd believes her beloved home will always be the heart of London’s gay scene: “I don’t think Soho will die out, I know everyone’s saying it’s going to be over. But it won’t be. The gay scene is just branching out into other areas as opposed to being in one secluded, hushed area.”
To read the full, in-depth feature about the history and future of Soho, pick up Attitude’s current Style issue – with cover girl RuPaul on the front. The issue is available to download to your mobile, iPad or tablet device now, at Pocketmags.com/Attitude.
The issue is out in shops now and you can also have it delivered directly to your door at newsstand.co.uk.
