Central Station

The Central Station

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

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

In April 1974 a Saturday disco for Gay Switchboard was held at the pub .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' . An advert appears in Gay 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 Gay News announced that Icebreakers had taken over the regular disco at the Prince Albert, Wharfedale Road, N 1 . In 1977-1978 an Alternative Gay Alliance disco was held on Friday evenings . In August 1979 Icebreakers who were running the gay disco decided to move to new premises, the Hemingford Arms, after a disagreement with the landlord of the Prince Albert .

Vox Pop

[Vox Pop entries are personal recollections by individual contributors.]

I was in Central Station one night, around 1996. It was a cruise night in the basement. One of the small dark arches was used as a ‘dark room’, it was very cramped, with guys getting it on with each other, some on their knees. After about 20 minutes we realised that an older, larger gentleman who was on the floor, wasn’t moving. The arch was cleared, the lights put on and people made themselves respectable whilst an ambulance was called. He had apparently expired after sniffing poppers. They did his trousers up before the ambulance arrived. From then on, for some years, the lights in the arch were switched on every 20 minutes. I hope he died with a smile on his face.

External links

http://www.centralstation.co.uk/