ABSTRACT
The Royal Vauxhall Tavern is a legendary lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer venue in South London that has been the cornerstone of London and the UK’s queer culture since at least the 1940s. Famously the site of the Vauxhall Pleasure Gardens from the 1660s to 1859 and once part of a larger Victorian terrace, this last man standing is all that was left after clearing the slum of an estate and returning the area to parkland. Through contacting the consultants involved with getting the imposing Vauxhall Nine Elms development through planning, the director organised a high-level meeting with Lambeth Planning: a kind of pre-pre-application meeting. Ben Walters, a journalist and critic doing a PhD in queer culture, led the listing application: a substantial document outlining the history of the RVT and its uniqueness as an incubator for alternative performance. The day Historic England announced the positive outcome of our application was momentous.
