Central station gay bar

Central Station

A play party for bisexual men and women, held every Monday afternoon (1.30pm to 7.30pm), and evenings on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month. See website […]

A play party for bisexual men and women, held every Monday afternoon (1.30pm to 7.30pm), and evenings on the 2nd and 4th Wedn central station gay bar

Gay venue that survived attacks by skinheads faces a new threat

Bar co-founders Duncan Irvine (far right) and Martin Mason (second from right) hope to elevate £70,000

A GAY bar which has been at the heart of countless iconic moments in LGBT+ history has issued an emergency appeal for funds as it faces financial ruin.

Central Station, in King’s Cross, which opened almost 30 years ago, is fighting for survival after the government announced that pubs without a beer garden cannot open until mid-May.

By this time, the Wharfdale Road bar will own been open for only three of the past 13 months with a rent bill of more than £90,000 to pay.

The owners also have a government-backed loan to service which was used to make the venue guarded and ready to uncover last summer – only for it to be shut again in December with gallons of paid-for but unused drinks poured down the drain.

Co-founder Duncan Irvine told the Tribune: “We’re in the middle of the third lockdown and originally we reflection we could just about cope with one. We took out a loan to reopen, to only then operate at about 60 per cent capacity.

“But then each time we shut we had to throw away stock which has cost us thousand

The last bar standing? For some, coming here changed their lives

Duncan Irvine and John Egan at Central Station

A Distinct pub in King’s Cross is preparing to celebrate its 30th birthday on Saturday – a milestone moment for the borough’s last surviving homosexual venue.

Duncan Irvine, co-owner of Central Station, said he was proud of the role the block had played in local LGBT+ history in the borough – pointing out how when other venues closed down, his pub became a focal signal for groups that had nowhere else to go.

He added that when he opened in 1992 there were around eight other spaces catering to the LGBT+ community.

Now, he believes they are the last.

Mr Irvine had left Scotland 50 years ago and came to London aged 24 to find a thriving gay scene here because “the word gay didn’t even exist there, although there were lots of other words for us”.

Describing how he and his partner at the time, Martin Mason, took on the lease at the venue completely unaware of its past as a far-right pub, he said they were subjected to bricks through the window from “skinheads” in the early days and had to install metal shutters for protection.

In the years subsequently, many organis

February is LGBTQ History Month and this year, we’ve been spotlighting the pink plaques you may have spotted around the borough. Crafted and installed by local heritage organisation Islington’s Identity festival, the plaques feature a QR code which can be scanned to detect out more about a particular person or aim of interest at that location, in celebration of Islington’s LGBTQ history. The next blog in our series is dedicated to a local legend: Primary Station

Central Station has been open since 1992 and is Islington’s oldest still operational LGBTQ bar. Pivotal Station has been used as a meeting place for LGBTQ social groups and sports clubs since its foundation. Its location near King’s Cross makes it accessible for people both in and outside of London, and therefore a key part of the LGBTQ club and social scene.

Just some of the groups who hold made Central Station their home include SM Dykes, Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, Gay Skinhead Collective, the London Blues Community for uniforms/denim/cowboy gear wearers, and the Gay Bridge Club. Other groups involve Step Out, a lgbtq+ and lesbian youth collective providing support and social events for under 25s, and Rank Outsiders, a campaig

Central Station

Central Station pub sign, showing former name "Prince Albert"

The Central Stationis a gay pub on three floors in the King's Crossarea of London. It has hosted a variety of LGBT organisations, and the Underground Club beneath the pub hosts different gay cruise events on other nights of the week. It was previously The Prince Albert, and changed its name in 1992.

In April 1974 a Saturday disco for Male lover Switchboard was held at the pub ^[1].By Jan 1975 a group called Gay Alliance were running gay discos at the pub, after the GLF collective had given up the role on 'idealogical grounds' ^[2]. An advert appears in Same-sex attracted News issue 52 (1 Aug 1975) from the North London GLF presenting Gay Discos at the Prince Albert on Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. In May 1976 Homosexual News announced that Icebreakers had taken over the regular disco at the Prince Albert, Wharfedale Road, N 1 ^[3]. In 1977-1978 an Alternative Lgbtq+ Alliance disco was held on Friday evenings ^[4]. In August 1979 Icebreakers who were running the gay disco decided to travel to new premises, the Hemingford Arms, after a disagreement with the landlord of the Prince Albert ^[5]. ^[6]

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