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The Astoria closes for good
The Astoria
London says goodbye to legendary G-A-Y venue, The Astoria
"The continued development of London Transport and the Tottenham Court Road area of the city means that legendary venues like The Astoria become a thing of the past"
The creation of the new London Underground service, Crossrail, has meant that gay venue G-A-Y has closed it doors one last time.
The £5.5 billion Crossrail scheme will see The Astoria torn down to make way for direct transport between Heathrow, the City of London and Canary Wharf. New areas of housing development are as such being planned in the Thames Gateway to central London.
The former cinema, turned music venue was the first gay club in London and hold special memories for gay people in the city.
The Astoria has had a long and busy life, being built on the site of a former pickle factory and opening in 1927. It functioned as a cinema for almost a half-century before being made a theatre in 1976 and became used exclusively for music. The 2,000 capacity venue has seen legendary performances from the Beach Boys, Nirvana, The Black Crowes, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie, The Rolling Stones and more recently talent like Amy Winehouse.
G-A-Y evenings began 15 years ago and have since built up a reputation as the venue’s were most popular nights. They featured the cream of the crop in pop music, and many of pop’s finest moments happened live on stage at The Astoria. Who could forget the bare bottoms of McFly?!
So it is that the continued development of London Transport and the Tottenham Court Road area of the city means that legendary venues like The Astoria become a thing of the past to pave way for the future.
For those of you still wanting to G-A-Y it up on a Saturday eve, London G-A-Y nights are now held at Heaven nightclub.
