Vauxhall 'Village'

This week's Boyz tells of the ongoing gay commercialisation of Vauxhall.

Split in two by the railway in the 1900s, Vauxhall has never felt much like a 'village'. To date, gay bar/club life in the area has more or less been limited to the weekends. First Sundays then, in recent years, Friday thru Monday mornings. With the opening of Barcode and the sauna Chariots (they call themselves, er, a 'health club') it looks like it's becoming a gay destination 24/7.

Gays, as consumers and gentrifiers, have apparently contributed to urban renaissance. And I'm just waiting for Vauxhall to appear in this list of gay villages around the world.

In 2006, there's going to be the first ever Vauxhall Pride. But how the gays - often fuelled by alcohol and party drugs on such occasions - will negotiate the traffic that rattles around the A203 will be one to watch. A parade, perhaps, from Fire to Crash, pausing outside the RVT only briefly to wait for the man to change from red to green.




For another side of Vauxhall, and a legacy from those who squatted Bonnington Square in the 70s, wander around Harleyford Road Community Garden, as well as Bonnington Square itself and its Pleasure Garden.