Learn The Alternate History Of London’s Queer Nightlife

Queer City re-examines club culture through the history and experiences of the UK’s gay population.

There are a number of important books that comprise the rich canon of literature about sexuality and nightlife: Dave Haslam’s Life After Dark, Tim Lawrence’s Life and Death on the New York Dance Floor, 1980-1983 and Simon Reynolds’ Energy Flash, to name a few. Peter Ackroyd’s Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day is new masterpiece that is just as important to this ongoing narrative as these written histories.

The book takes readers on a whirlwind tour through a city that’s always been sexually active, from the earliest Roman riverside settlements through the depths of modern Soho. Ackroyd is allegedly incredibly well-read—he himself has already published 60 books—and pulls from sources as diverse as Ezra Pound and Alfred Hitchcock to craft the history of contemporary queer club culture and gay narratives in cosmopolitan cities.

“This book is a celebration, as well as a history, of the continual and various human world maintained in its diversity despite persecution, condemnation, and affliction,” says the author. “It represents the ultimate triumph of London.” To grab a copy for yourself, click here.

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Image (of Leigh Bowery, who definitely clubbed in London’s gay scene) via DAZED