One of the things we wanted to create as part of the project was to showcase some of the incredible heritage in the Vauxhall area, particularly with regards to the RVT, which is set almost on the entrance to what was the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens. We were lucky enough to be able to work with Robin Whitmore, who did some…
Here’s an advert we found from the early 1980’s which announces the re-opening of the Royal Vauxhall Tavern after ‘extensive re-docoration’. I wonder if this was when the bar was moved and the stage area added? Interesting to see mime and drag advertised as 7 days a week, including Sunday morning.
Going through the Hall Carpenter Archive in London, there is a lot of articles written in the 1980’s highlighting the number of police raids and entrapment cases going on in gay bars at the time. Here’s a few examples.
I’ve just been reading Paul O’Grady’s Biography, which is broken down into 3 books. There’s some very interesting recollections of the RVT. The part below is from the second book ‘The Devil Rides Out’ when Paul was performing as part of the drag group ‘The Glamazons’. “At the Royal Vauxhall Tavern, in what felt like a rough part of sarf…