The Glory

Visiting London for the weekend, this was literally our first stop. Went straight from the airport and they let us in with suitcases, which I thought was really nice considering the pub was packed. Nice atmosphere, nice people, maybe a little bit too crowded and hot upstairs in the pub area, while downstairs wasn’t really busy. but, aside that, nice place for a night out.

Ehhg.
My friend said this was the new HOT spot in as far as the gay scene goes so a group of us hop foot it here after a birthday meal for a beer and a boogie on a Friday evening.
As we approached we were told there was going to be a £3 entry fee, which for a regular pub with no entertainment on annoys me but hey ho here we go. But we all got stamped with GLORY on our wrists and were let in for free.
Now I’m too young to ever have experienced the more underground gay bars of yesteryear — but this place felt reminiscent of those times. For 11pm on a Friday there was no way the bar needed to be that HOT. I mean, difficult to breathe kind of HOT. And yet remarkably everyone still had their shirts on!
The bar itself is small and crammed, but the staff were nice and friendly and the booze reasonably priced.
The whole place is very dark, with a small cabaret stage area with the compulsory silver backdrop.
It all felt a bit dated, terrible (and not ironically camp) music, sauna type hot with a keep your clothes on rule and just BLEH.
No I’m not the lesbian spoil sport — I love a good sausage bar with a good atmosphere, but I’m afraid the only Glory in this bar may be in the holes in the bathroom.

Finally a good reason to go out again. You can sit and have a chilled out drink or you can watch some crazy tranny shows. Looking forward to going there again.

The previous review, by Tristan J, says it all better than I could regarding the venue.
All I can add is that my main feeling when I was there was one of nostalgia. It reminded me so much of the provincial gay pubs of my youth in the late 1980s.

The Glory is a new gay bar/​pub/​performance venue in Haggerston. Those of you who used to visit Bistroteque’s cabaret room until they converted it into an events venue will know the sort of thing to expect performance wise. Lip synching, tranny talent and more.
Their New Year’s eve party was fun and free and last night they finally opened their secret downstairs nightclub (upstairs where the stage area is feels more like a pub but don’t expect bar meals here). For those of you who like your gay bars with plenty of cheese, then you’ll probably enjoy this place (Madonna, Taylor Swift, Tina Turner, mainly classics) and their basement is like a tardis. I was genuinely shocked judging from the upstairs space that the basement was so much bigger.
The staircase to get to it, however, is badly lit and narrow and there were a few jams getting down and up at times (especially if the DJ played a not too popular song and caused an exodus from the dance floor). Their disco lights were pretty amazing though and they seem very keen on setting off the smoke machine, at times it was heavy fog down there.
The drag acts vary but were high energy and inventive (with a particularly funny Les Mis lip synch).
Before they opened up the dancefloor at 10:30, the bar was quite crowded and some people were a little pushy getting to the bar but it eased once the basement opened. They only have toilets upstairs which makes a trek from dance to loo a bit of a mission.
If you’re looking for some unpretentious fun and a mainly very friendly mixed crowd who don’t take themselves too seriously, then from what I’ve seen so far, this is the place to come.