First Out Café Bar
London’s first explicitly LGBT café
First Out opened in 1986 on St Giles High Street, near Centre Point – London’s first explicitly LGBT café. Not a pub or a club, but a relaxed, affordable place where gay men, lesbians and their friends could simply exist in public. The menu was vegetarian, the welcome genuine; through the late 1980s and 90s it hosted community meetings, benefit nights and quiet weekday lunches. For many it was the first LGBT venue they ever walked into.
Jonathan Harbourne, who created these walking tours, remembers it well: “Jimmy Somerville and I used to train at Centre Point Gym round the corner, then come to First Out for dinner. It was our ritual.” Amy Lamé – now London’s Night Czar – worked here before her rise as a performer and broadcaster. First Out closed in 2011; the building still stands, giving little away.