Farewell to a true icon of the East End

A decade of tI the Glory comes to an end this week weekend as the legendary LGBTQ: pub calls its last orders. Isobel Van Dyke pays tribute and reveals what's next

HIS weekend, a legend of east London nightlife will host its final hurrah. Say farewell to the Glory. After a decade of service to the capital's LGBTQ+ community, the grand dame will be shutting its doors for good on January 31, following the landlord's decision to redevelop. The wake, which kicks off on Friday night and continues into next week, is expected to resemble New Year's Eve at the venue: chaotic and emotional, with queues down either side of the road.

"Mayhem! Sodom and Gomorrah! We're even asking next door if they can handle the overspill," says co-owner and performance artist Jonny Woo, who is keeping cool about the closure unlike his nostalgic counterpart, co-owner John Sizzle, who retches when I ask how he's feeling. "It's like selling a family home or seeing your childhood bedroom for the last time," explains a dewy-eyed Sizzle.

The unassuming, blackcurrant-painted pub has been a monarch of London's queer scene since 2014. Located towards the Shoreditch end of Kingsland Road, the Glory sits on the corner of Regents Canal, and the area colloquially and only sometimes ironically known as the "Haggerston riviera". For years, it has marked the end point of Dalston's queer strip, which begins at VFDalston on Stoke Newington Road, continues at Dalston Superstore, and ends at the Glory, with several other LGBTQ+ stop-offs along the way (Doña, The Karaoke Hole, Village 512).

"The Glory is what kickstarted my career. I owe everything I've got to this space," says former Ru Paul's Drag Race star Bimini. "A lot of LGBTQ+ spaces don't cater for everyone, but the Glory does everything in its power to do that.