Royal Vauxhall Tavern

The Royal Vauxhall Tavern in London is a historic Victorian pub built between 1860 and 1862 that became the UK's first Grade II listed building recognized specifically for its LGBT importance. Situated on the former site of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens, the pub became a prominent drag performance venue after World War II. It famously hosted performer Paul O'Grady as Lily Savage for an eight-year residency.

London Β· from the walk β€œSecrets of Vauxhall: Spies, Pleasure & Hidden London” Β· audio ~4 min Β· Generated

Royal Vauxhall Tavern

Royal Vauxhall Tavern, 372 Kennington Lane, London SE11 5HY

Why did the Royal Vauxhall Tavern receive Grade II listed status in 2015?

You're standing before one of the most remarkable buildings in all of London. This handsome Victorian pub with its sweeping curved facade... this is the Royal Vaux-hall Tavern, and it sits on ground that has been dedicated to pleasure, scandal, and reinvention for over three hundred and sixty years.......... You see, long before this building existed, this very land was part of the legendary Vaux-hall Pleasure Gardens. Open from sixteen sixty-one to eighteen fifty-nine, Vaux-hall was considered the first and most popular pleasure garden in London. People originally reached it by boat on the Thames, paying sixpence for the ride. It was a place of music, masked balls, fireworks... and the infamous "dark walks," unlit paths where all manner of mischief unfolded after sunset. Those dark walks were SO notorious they appeared in Frances Burney's novel EvelIna as the setting for the heroine's near-rape experience.......... When the gardens finally closed, the R V T was built between eighteen sixty and eighteen sixty-two on this very site. It was probably designed by the architect James Edmeston the elder. Though sometimes reported to have started life as a music hall, it was always constructed as a public house.......... Then came the war. After the Second World War, returning servicemen and local gay men were drawn to the venue, which held shows by female impersonators. And by the nineteen eighties, this place had earned the nickname "The Palladium of Drag." Stars like Paul O'Grady, performing as Lily Savage, had an eight year, four times a week residency here.......... But the story that Still gives me chills happened on the twenty-third of January, nineteen eighty-seven. It was the height of the Aids crisis... and thirty-five police officers stormed this building wearing rubber gloves. They wore the gloves to avoid touching those they arrested. This was the club's second raid that winter, based on the flimsy excuse of customers being drunk on licensed premises. Lily Savage was on stage in full drag. And what did she do? She looked at those rubber gloves and said... "Well, well... it looks like we've got help with the washing up." All those arrested were eventually released without charge.......... And then there's The legend. According to Cleo Rocos in her memoir, Diana, Princess of Wales, visited this very pub in the late nineteen eighties, disguised as a man, accompanied by Rocos, Freddie Mercury, and Kenny Everett. Diana was dressed in a camouflage army jacket, her hair tucked into a leather cap, wearing dark aviator sunglasses... and they decided the most famous woman in the world might Just pass for an eccentrically dressed gay male model. Rocos said Diana just looked like Freddie's boyfriend, a gorgeous male model... and she loved it. Now, I should tell you... Mercury's personal assistant Peter Freestone has stated that Freddie was Not involved and never met the Princess. So, truth or legend? No one knows for certain. But what a story.......... In twenty fifteen, this pub became the first building in the U K to receive Grade Two listed status specifically for its importance to the L G B T community. Three hundred and sixty years of pleasure, defiance, and reinvention... all on this one extraordinary patch of London ground.

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