The Lord Clyde

A new cruising outlet for gay men in 2022, overseen by seasoned club night promoter Mitch Winn who, after years of roving nights, has anchored (with business partner Ian) at this late-19th-century pub in Deptford in south London. Opened on 25 June 2022, the enterprise features a main bar area marked by chesterfield-style sofas, netting, modest floor space and a large porn screen overlooking a prominent staircase linking this floor with the darkened level below, which features a dance floor and light effects, a sofa and a secluded area with a second large porn screen. Already going down well with a younger crowd, some of whom refer to it as "the LC". Specialist events tend to start early evening, including Nude (Wednesday), Bulge (Thursday), Punishment Block (Friday) and Skin Tight (third Saturday). Door policy includes "all those who identify as male". No draft beers; cans only. Coming next: an even lower level, with full-blown cruising spaces (darkroom, sling, multiple glory holes, play areas, maze) and a walled-in courtyard (smoking etc). The Lord Clyde is not a fetish venue per se but is known to stage leather/etc events, including Brew Hunter's Backstreet Reunion in February 2023, when the original bar and sling of the much-missed Backstreet (1985–2022) found a new home here. In the early 2010s, for a spell, a space above the main bar served as a boxing training facility overseen by then pre-transitioning boxing manager and promoter Kellie Maloney. Thameslink station: Deptford (Greenwich line), reachable in minutes from London Bridge, Farringdon, St Pancras, Greenwich and Woolwich Arsenal stations. Then just a five- or six-minute walk. Exit the station left into Deptford High St, then take either the first left (Ffinch St, with Marcella restaurant on the corner) — followed by a quick but semi-convoluted walk through housing back passages – or the third left (Edward St), which is more straightforward but a bit further out of the way. Plus New Cross Overground station, then a four- or five-minute walk.