View source for Leicester Square

'''Leicester Square''' is a garden square in London's [[West End]]. It sits in the middle of a pedestrian zone and is famous for its cinemas and film premieres. It was rennovated in 2012.

== 1920s ==
During the 1920s Leicester Square, along with [[The Strand]], became the focus of queer commercial sociability<ref>Queer London, 2005</ref>. It was the heart of London's nightlife and men could socialise in the galleries of the [[Empire]] and [[Alhambra]], [[Jack Bloomfield's]] pub, [[Russell's Bar]] and the [[Cavour]]. 

The gay focus later moved to the neighbouring [[Piccadilly Circus]] after suffering a demise after the Met and LCC clamped down on heterosexual vice, making gay men's presence less acceptable. In 1927 the [[News of the World]] lamented the Square's "decay... its conversion... from gay Bohemianism to ultra-respectability".

== 1990s ==
In the early 1990s an American diners-style bar called the [[Locomotion]] became almost exclusively gay and lesbian. The large nightclub on the corner of Charing Cross Road, the [[Hippodrome]], had a weekly gay night on Mondays. The [[Limelight]], a converted church, held Sunday afternoon tea dances organised by [[The Village]]. The [[Café de Paris]] hosted a weekly Sunday afternoon club in the late '90s, and still plays host to many queer functions.

See [[Timeline of West End Bars and Clubs]].

== References ==
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[[category:London]]
[[category:West End]]
[[Category:Articles with no pictures]]