Taboo Nightclub – 100 Leicester Square
Less than three years; a whole era
Taboo ran for under three years – January 1985 to late 1987, at 100 Leicester Square – and defined an era. Co-founded by Leigh Bowery and his partner Trojan, it was the most extreme nightclub in London: admission by Bowery’s personal approval at the door (he turned away anyone not dressed extravagantly enough), a dress code of outrageous performance, and inside a crowd that included George Michael, Boy George, Philip Sallon and everyone who was anyone in creative London.
Michael Alig visited from New York and was inspired; the music mixed post-punk, electronic and early house. The club gave its name to a 2002 West End musical with a Boy George score. Leigh Bowery died of AIDS in December 1994, aged 33. Taboo is one of the great lost clubs of London – a door policy that asked only that you commit.