London · Walking tour

West End & Charing Cross Road – Stages, Statues and Stonewall

From the Oscar Wilde statue at the Strand to the lost cafés near Centre Point, this walk traces the queer West End east of Soho – a tour of performance and nightlife and the long campaign for rights. The Salisbury, the Hippodrome, the lost Taboo and Astoria: each venue carried a different generation’s community. It links to Soho at its northern end and Bloomsbury at its east.

13 stops

1 Heaven · 1979
2 Oscar Wilde Statue · 1998
3 Half Way to Heaven · 1990s–present
4 National Portrait Gallery – Queer Britain in Portraits · 1728–1810
5 Café de Paris · 1924
6 Taboo Nightclub – 100 Leicester Square · 1985–1987
7 The Hippodrome · 1900 / 1983
8 Brief Encounter · 1980s–2008
9 The Salisbury · 1892–present
10 Astoria / G-A-Y · 1927 / 1993–2008
11 Centre Point Gym · 1980s–1990s
12 First Out Café Bar · 1986–2011
13 Ivor Novello – 11 Aldwych · 1913–1951

Part of LGBT History UK