Royal Vauxhall Tavern

Royal Vauxhall Tavern

The most celebrated queer pub on the planet, it is nigh-on impossible to have a bad time at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern.

From the bingo-cabaret mayhem of The Big Bingo Show, to the lip syncing drag queen hijinks of The Lipsinkers, to the infamous annual Christmas panto, you will invariably leave this former Victorian music hall with a mile-wide grin across your mush.

RVT regulars The LipSinkers

True, this isn't the kind of pub where you settle into a corner to do the Telegraph crossword. And the beer selection doesn't exactly have us foaming at the mouth. But that's not the point of the RVT. It's a circus, a funfair, a bloody riot.

In the words of comedian Elf Lyons:

When you enter the Royal Vauxhall Tavern it brings to mind the inner workings of a carousel: high beams, red and gold interior, decorated with the bright dancing movements of the disco lights above and the oscillating gaggle of the great and the good in sweaty gay abandon below.

If you haven't been to the RVT, you haven't experienced London nightlife.

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Last updated March 2018.

Address: Royal Vauxhall Tavern 372 Kennington Lane, London SE11 5HY

Monday: 7pm-midnight

Tuesday: 7pm-midnight

Wednesday: 7pm-midnight

Thursday: 7pm-midnight

Friday: 7pm-3am

Saturday: 9pm-2am

Sunday: 3pm-midnight

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