The Astoria and G-A-Y
The biggest gay club night in Europe
The Astoria opened in 1927 as one of London’s grandest super-cinemas, seating over 1,800 beneath an ornate Moorish interior, and became a celebrated music venue hosting everyone from the Rolling Stones to Nirvana. But for London’s LGBT community the Astoria is inseparable from G-A-Y.
G-A-Y launched here in 1993 and quickly became the biggest gay club night in Europe; at its peak Saturday nights drew over 2,000 people. The formula was unashamedly populist – chart pop, emerging artists, an ecstatic crowd – and it launched countless careers. Being visibly, loudly queer in a crowd of thousands felt revolutionary. When the Astoria was compulsorily purchased and demolished in 2009 for Crossrail, G-A-Y moved to Heaven. The site is now part of the Elizabeth line station – infrastructure over the footprint of one of London’s most beloved gay venues.