![]() ![]() Some lament that the capital is no longer a 24-hour-city, unless, of course, you’re up for afters at Billingsgate fish market chased with a full English at 24/7 eatery Duck & Waffle at £18 a head. This has sparked a flurry of articles mourning the “annihilation” of London’s party scene. Queer venue the Glory also shut its doors in January, and iconic nightclub Heaven recently announced it’s at risk of permanent closure. Closures in London include Space 289 in Bethnal Green and Werkhaus in Brick Lane and G-A-Y in Soho. Data shows almost a third of nightclubs have vanished across the country, and a separate study revealed London is losing pubs faster than anywhere else in England, with 46 sites calling last orders in the first six months of 2023. LESBIANS UNITE #lesbianthings #lesbiansbelike #wlw #wlwtiktok ♬ The L Word Theme Song (The Way That We Live) (Full Version) - Betty The question of closuresīut, of course, it’s not all sunshine and rainbow bunting. And the opening of new Spanish lesbian tapas bar La Camionera in Soho two weeks ago showed there’s a strong appetite for new LGBTQ+ spaces, with hundreds of queer women flooding the streets for the viral launch in what has since been coined ‘Winter Pride’. Losing these establishments would sap the “lifeblood of the city”. We didn’t lose one venue on the other side of Covid.” She speaks candidly: “It makes me quite emotional. She set up the Culture and Community Spaces at Risk office to support grassroots sites, created an LGBTQ+ venues forum, and during the pandemic put together an emergency fund for these spaces. That’s why much of her work as night czar has been about stemming the closure of LGBTQ+ venues in London, with 58% vanishing from the city from 2006 to 2017. Today, there are more venues the queer community can go and feel welcome, but “we’ll always need our own safe spaces,” the 53-year-old says. And since, she’s unapologetically brandished the torch for LGBTQ+ nightlife. “I feel very proud to have what I think is the best job in the world”Īmong these was Simon Casson, and the duo launched club night Duckie at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, carving a niche for beer, Bowie and performance art in a queer scene hounded by electronic dance tracks and cheesy disco. “I just wanted to live my best life really,” she muses, looking back fondly on the LGBTQ+ Soho late-night café-bar where she found her feet: “It was, like, one of the first in London to open where you didn’t have to be secretive so that atmosphere was very refreshing, there were people from all over the world that worked there and I met loads of friends.” ![]() She was enchanted by the city a shining “beacon” for people wanting to be themselves. So how did the New Jersey local become the mouthpiece for London nightlife? She takes us back 32 years, when she left her waterside hometown, Keyport, for England’s capital. But that’s what leadership is, and I just have to carry on.”Ī czar is born: Lamé was appointed as night czar in 2016 Lamé speaks generally on these kinds of comments: “It’s inevitable I’ll get some criticism because you can’t please everyone all the time. A 2018 article in NME begged the question, ‘London night czar Amy Lamé, what exactly is the point of you?’ Well, let’s find out for ourselves. But it’s not the first time the night czar has made her way to headlines. ![]() Our interview took place before all of this. A spokesperson for London mayor Sadiq Khan has defended her “important job” to support and promote sectors worth billions of pounds. “I’ve been working closely with businesses, venues, boroughs and Londoners to support them throughout these challenges, and I’m delighted that London’s hospitality industry sales outpaced the rest of the UK last year,” she wrote in The Independent, citing the “huge challenges” faced by hospitality across the country in recent years: the pandemic, Brexit, the cost-of-living crisis, rising rents and business rates. But this week, she’s been slammed in the press for ‘globetrotting’ to Australia, Italy and Spain on a £117,000 salary while London loses 1,165 venues in three years – a rate one Tory MP said “would make the Blitz blush”. So, after a breakneck journey darting through tourists and speeding the DLR I’m face-to-face with Amy Lamé as cable cars meander peacefully past the window, gentle giants, in a slick glass building in east London, where the mayor’s office has been based, I learn, since 2022.Įight years have passed since Lamé became London’s first night czar in 2016. ![]()
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