The Hoist CLOSED (SEE JAMIE HP)

Established in 1996 and still going rather strong, the Hoist is located under railway arches like many of Vauxhall's other gay clubs, but is far more considerate of extreme tastes, from serious leather, rubber and skinhead to light leather and dirty textiles. In the 2010s naked-only sessions have become a fixture, often outselling the fetish-minded: SBN/Stark Bollock Naked (Sunday afternoon, hugely popular) and NBN/Nearly Bollock Naked (Wednesday and Sunday evening). From late 2012 Arch 1 went naked-only on Saturday nights, but in late 2015 the fetish set took back control of the space. Other regular slots include CP/spanking club Boys & Sirs (Saturday afternoon), monthly SM Gays evenings (Thursday), monthly rubber club Gummi (Sunday), popular Rubber Reunion [see separate entry], fisting-friendly nights and occasional formal-leather BLUF parties. Sports Bolt kicked off late May 2016. In 2012 Arch 2, previously pretty much a murky darkroom for Arch 1 customers, became the basement-like Bar Berlin, now also used for specialist events. In March 2014 a documentary about the Hoist made by US directors Charles Lum and Todd Verow was screened at BFI Flare: London LGBT Film Festival. And on 20 June 2014 the Hoist's Arch 2 hosted queer polysexual fetish gathering Klub Fukk – the club's first ever women-inclusive sex event. An outlet of RoB vacated Arch 2 in July 2014, with the space returning to its original function as a cruising corridor. Private fetish parties have emerged as a rather big thing here, including the Stable (borrowing heavily from Germany's FickstutenMarkt). And Mr. Hoist 2016, Swedish-born Niklas Hogner, will star as Kake in Finnish blockbuster director Dome Karukoski's 2017 biopic TOM OF FINLAND, due for release in 2017. Sadly, the Hoist closed on 11 December 2016 owing to massive rent increases and other factors, with private Hoist parties planned at nearby venue Protocal. See Jamie HP entry. Mr. Hoist 2017 due for 21 October 2017, to be staged at Protocol, with the promise of a full-throttle Hoist reinvention: "We will be converting the three Protocol arches into the new Hoist". Watch this space.