G-A-Y Bar

About this place G-A-Y Bar

G-A-Y Bar is the most consistently busy gay bar in Soho — a deliberately unpretentious, pop-music-oriented, cheap-drinks venue that has introduced thousands of LGBTQ+ visitors to Old Compton Street over the years. The G-A-Y brand (which also runs the Heaven nightclub at Charing Cross) is built on accessibility: no attitude, no dress code, music that people actually know, and prices significantly lower than the surrounding Soho competition. The result is a bar that is busy every night of the week and absolutely packed on Friday and Saturday, when the entire spectrum of the London LGBTQ+ scene passes through at some point in the evening. The crowd is young — students, first-timers in London, tourists — but long-term Londoners use it as a meeting point before moving on. The basement bar (Bar Below) has slightly more intimate seating. Two floors, a terrace on the Old Compton Street pavement in summer, and the most recognisable neon sign on the street. Open until midnight Sunday to Thursday, later on weekends.