Difference between revisions of "Lyon's Coventry Street Corner House"
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| − | '''Lyon's Coventry Street | + | '''Lyon's Coventry Street Corner House''' was a respectable, yet affordable, hangout for middle class gay men in London's [[West End]]. It's clientele comprised clerks, shop assistants, workmen, civil servants and the metropolitan intelligentsia. Painted boys could be found in amongst more discreet men. |
From the 1930s, when the police started clamping down on gay men meeting in public cafés and bars, to appear 'more normal' men met only in the first floor restaurant. Gerald Dougherty said "there was nothing to say it was different, but thecwaitresseskne it and wouldn't let a woman sit anywhere near". | From the 1930s, when the police started clamping down on gay men meeting in public cafés and bars, to appear 'more normal' men met only in the first floor restaurant. Gerald Dougherty said "there was nothing to say it was different, but thecwaitresseskne it and wouldn't let a woman sit anywhere near". | ||
Revision as of 23:47, 18 March 2012
Lyon's Coventry Street Corner House was a respectable, yet affordable, hangout for middle class gay men in London's West End. It's clientele comprised clerks, shop assistants, workmen, civil servants and the metropolitan intelligentsia. Painted boys could be found in amongst more discreet men.
From the 1930s, when the police started clamping down on gay men meeting in public cafés and bars, to appear 'more normal' men met only in the first floor restaurant. Gerald Dougherty said "there was nothing to say it was different, but thecwaitresseskne it and wouldn't let a woman sit anywhere near".
Other clubs and pubs popular with homosexuals at the time were the York Minster, the Swiss and the Marquis of Granby in Soho. Peter Wildeblood called them "less [than] discreet", rough and cruisy. Throughout the 1930s respectable men in evening dress and camp queans solicited sailors and workmen in the Running Horse. Other venues included the Billie's Club, the Hungry Horse, Gerano's in New Compton Street, Chez Victor in Wardour Street. The downstairs bar at the Ritz Hotel was frequented by men from high society, nicknamed l’Abri (the shelter), and the Trocadero Long Bar, another Lyon's Corner House.
References
Queer London – Perils and Pleasures in the Sexual Metropolis, 1918-1957 Matt Houlbrook, The University of Chicago Press, 2005.]
