Clapham Feelers
London's first gay touch rugby team, started in July 2015 by six people in the park and now over 50 players on Clapham Common. No membership fee at all: turn up on a Saturday morning.
South · Sat, Wed · Free · Beginners
Ways to meet gay guys that aren't a club, an app or another round. Who meets where, what it costs, and how a complete beginner gets started. Every one checked at the time of writing, with the date on the page. London first. More cities coming.
FOD's first big social, with Queera Lynn at 8pm
Tuesday 20 October, 7pm · The Ministry, Borough · £12 · Friend of Dorothy
Bijou Socials
Thursday 22 October, 2.30pm · National Maritime Museum · Free · Bijou Socials
Queer Chess Club at The Common Press
Thursday 22 October, 6.30pm · The Common Press, Dalston · £3 to £12 by income · Chess For All: Queer Chess Club
awkward prods' big stupid queer pop culture quiz - OCTOBER EDITION
Thursday 22 October, 7pm · Two Brewers · £5 to £8 · Awkward Productions' Big Stupid Queer Quiz
Supper Club at Boro Bistro, with No Sex Gay Weekend
Friday 23 October, 7pm · Boro Bistro, Borough Market · £30, three courses and a welcome drink · Friend of Dorothy
Transgenerations connect with Tomara Garrod and Lu Wilson
Saturday 24 October, 3pm · QUEERCIRCLE · Free · QUEERCIRCLE
Badge Cafe at The Joiners Heart
Saturday 24 October, 5pm · The Joiners Heart · Free to £15 · Badge Cafe
20th anniversary concert
Saturday 24 October, 7.30pm · St John's Church, Waterloo · £14 in advance, £12 early bird, children free · London Gay Symphonic Winds
LGBTQ+ Strength Sweat
Sunday 25 October, 11am · The Ministry, Borough · £7.50 · Friend of Dorothy
London's first gay touch rugby team, started in July 2015 by six people in the park and now over 50 players on Clapham Common. No membership fee at all: turn up on a Saturday morning.
South · Sat, Wed · Free · Beginners
The Kings Cross Steelers' official touch rugby partner: four mixed teams at Memorial Park in West Ham, two in the IGR Southern Touch Series leagues and two for people starting out, with an Intro to Touch group on Wednesdays.
East · Wed, Sat · Beginners
East London RFC's women's side and the Kings Cross Steelers' partner club, training on the same Memorial Park ground and taking complete beginners. A partner club, not a gay club.
East · Mon, Wed · Beginners
The world's first gay and inclusive rugby union club, founded in 1995, four men's XVs and an old boys' side at Memorial Park in West Ham, and 2026 Bingham Cup champions.
East · Tue, Thu · Beginners
South London's gay rugby club, listed by IGR from 2019: one men's union XV and one mixed-gender touch side at Mitcham and Carshalton Rugby Club, with a free New Members Day twice a year and a four-week beginner course.
South · Sat, Wed · Beginners
Mixed-gender, mixed-ability touch rugby in Chiswick, part of the West London Queer Project and in the IGR Touch South Series. Their page says Saturday mornings at Homefields Recreation Ground; the project's own calendar listed no touch rugby in September 2026, so message first.
West · Sat
Started as Bexley Invicta on 15 January 2011 and affiliated to Charlton Athletic Community Trust on 24 August 2017, the first LGBTQI+ friendly team attached to a professional club's trust. Four sides across the London Unity League and the GFSN, and Tuesday night training at the Charlton training ground in New Eltham.
South · Tue · Beginners
East London's mixed grassroots club, entered in London Unity League Division 1 and in both GFSN Division Two and the Development League for 2026/27. The club's website was unreachable when checked, so no session times or founding year are shown; the Linktree carries the email and Instagram.
East
The mixed-ability club, winners of the 2026 Football v Homophobia Grassroots Award, with three sessions a week: Sunday afternoons in Camden with 5-a-side and walking football and the pub after, Wednesdays at Shepherd's Bush and Fridays at the Sobell Centre. The first meet was at the Black Cap in November 1999 and the club co-founded the GFSN league in 2002.
North · Sun, Wed, Fri · Beginners
The newest club in London, formed by a group of friends in 2023 and already in GFSN Division One and London Unity League Division 2. Training is Tuesday evenings from September to June at Ark Burlington Danes Academy on Wood Lane, and the site says to come along to a session.
West · Tue · Beginners
Formed in 2005 and the club with the most teams in London: six, across the London Unity League, the GFSN, the Southern Sunday Football League and a development side. Training is Monday evenings on a 3G pitch in south west London.
South · Mon · Beginners
Formed as the London Romans in 2006 in north London, then taken in by Millwall Community Trust and moved south of the river. Three entries this season: Millwall Romans and Millwall Pride in London Unity League Division 1, Millwall Romans Pride in GFSN Division Two. No training night is published, so email and ask.
South
Formed in October 2013, with three entries for 2026/27: Soho FC in London Unity League Division 1, Soho Tigers in Division 2, and Soho FC in GFSN Division Two. The club's site publishes no training schedule, so ask through the contact form or on Instagram before travelling.
Established in February 1991 and the club for proper 11-a-side: four competitive men's sides and two women and non-binary sides, the men's first XI in the Middlesex County Premier Division, which the club says is the highest level any openly LGBT+ club currently plays at in England. Three training nights split by level, first session free and £8 after.
East · Mon, Wed, Thu · Free · Beginners
A registered charity whose name is a Cantonese acronym, try our best, no regrets; many of its members moved from Hong Kong to London in the last few years and had never played before joining. Three sessions split by level: social doubles on Fridays at CitySport, drills and games on Wednesdays at Canada Water, and competitive doubles matched by software on Sundays at Bacon's College. Membership £10 a year.
Central · Fri, Wed, Sun · Beginners
The outlier: no booking app and no membership fee. A mixed-ability drop-in every Sunday evening at Harrow Leisure Centre, all doubles, beginners welcome, players from 21 to 70, and a drink in the local pub after. The page carries no date, so email before making the trip.
West · Sun · Beginners
The old one: formed in 1976 as a group of gay swimmers at the Oasis pool in High Holborn, badminton only since April 2012, and celebrating its fiftieth year in 2026. Five sessions a week across north, south, west and central London, graded on the club's own scale from C minus to A, every one booked in advance on Spond.
North · Thu, Sat, Wed, Sun, Mon · Beginners
Long Yang Club Badminton London, affiliated to the Long Yang Club network that began in London in 1983. Three graded sessions a week in Southwark, Hackney and Kensington, all booked through Badminton England, with the £8 Sunday concession the cheapest gay badminton in London. You need a Badminton England membership before you can join the club itself.
Central · Mon, Wed, Sun · Beginners
South London, coach-led, and the club with a women-only session: every Sunday at Canada Water Leisure Centre, all levels, £13.50, with coaching often included and the odd extra Saturday. A mixed session at Bacon's College is priced at £11.50 but had nothing bookable when checked, so treat the Sunday women's session as the real one. Kate has run the club since 2016.
South · Sun · Beginners
East London's Meetup-run group, 467 members and two sessions a week on four courts, £12 each: Tuesday evenings at Mossbourne Community Academy in Hackney and Saturday late mornings at the Pastures centre in Leytonstone. Games are dealt by a scoring system the group calls BadBoard so everyone plays the same number and the sides stay even.
East · Tue, Sat · Beginners
A weekly Trans and Gender Diverse swim run by Glass Mill Leisure Centre in Lewisham, every Friday 7.30pm to 8.30pm in the teaching pool behind privacy blinds, with changing areas opening straight onto poolside. Open to members and non-members and booked through Better. A session run by the operator, not a club.
Fri
Three natural ponds run by the City of London Corporation, not a club: Highgate Men's Pond for biological and trans men, Kenwood Ladies' Pond for biological and trans women, and the Mixed Pond for everyone, with the access policy settled on 31 July 2026. £5 a swim, £3 concessions, fixed until 31 March 2027, cashless from 1 October 2026. On a hot day the grass bank by the Men's Pond entrance is, per an August 2026 piece, one of the city's main hubs of queer activity.
North · Beginners
Out To Swim's water polo team: an active squad of 80, training four times a week with 20 to 50 a session, and a six-week adult beginners course ending in a friendly. Your first three sessions are free. Beginners were not being accepted until at least September 2026; anyone with past experience can register interest and may get in sooner.
East · Tue, Thu, Fri, Sat · Beginners
Out To Swim's artistic swimming squad, added in April 2009 as the first club in the UK to coach the sport to both men and women. About 20 swimmers of mixed ages and ability, competing in the UK and internationally. The waitlist is open.
Central · Mon, Wed · Beginners
A Masters aquatics club for adults 18 and over, founded in 1992 and the largest of its five branches with over 300 London members. Four coached swim squads share an August 2026 timetable across nine pools, with water polo (London Orca), artistic swimming (the Angels) and the Seahorses trans and non-binary swim alongside. The London swim training and lessons waitlists have been closed since March 2026.
East · Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun · Beginners
Out To Swim's trans and non-binary group, run through the London Orca water polo team: a £5 swim on the second Sunday of every month at Pancras Square Leisure with Maz, a trans coach from Out To Swim, and a first-Monday session at the Oasis being trialled alongside the trans and non-binary water polo. 18 and over, and you need to manage one or two lengths.
North · Sun, Mon · Beginners
In its 27th year as of February 2025 by its own count, so founded 1999, about 250 members, £10 a year via Spond, over-18s. Rides go up on Spond weekly, mainly at weekends, usually from a rail station into the Home Counties: 30 to 100 km, three to six hours, coffee and lunch stops, graded Relaxed, Moderate or Challenging. A free Sunday in the Park laps session twice a month is the way to try it.
Sun · Free · Beginners
Founded September 2021 by Julian Gregory, British Cycling accredited, and by its own description London's largest LGBTQ+ cycling club, with over 500 rides a year. £35 a year via Spond, over-18s, helmet mandatory, confident over 30 km. Weekdays are park laps in Regent's Park and Richmond Park; weekends go out of London in speed tiers from green to red.
Mon, Wed, Thu, Fri · Beginners
Formed in 1995, part of International Front Runners, over 600 members and seven weekly social runs. All but one start from a leisure centre with changing rooms and lockers, a leader runs with you on your first night, and there is dinner or brunch after. Your first month is free; then £56 a year.
Central · Mon, Wed, Thu, Sat, Tue · Beginners
Established in Hackney in 2019, a community interest company since March 2023, and for gay, bi and trans people rather than allies. Every session is coached, an hour long, and ends with a social. Sessions are booked in the BEND app, which is also where the prices are; Monday beginners is listed as free.
East · Mon, Tue, Sat · Free · Beginners
Formed in 2021 by friends who like long distances; the first ride was London to Cambridge that September, and the fifth anniversary ride is Saturday 19 September 2026. Rides go up on Heylo for 284 active members: 7am laps of Regent's Park on Tuesdays and Fridays at a deliberately sedate pace with coffee at 8am, and most weekends a ride out. The only requirement, in their words, is a bike.
Tue, Fri · Beginners
The LGBT climbing club, formed in 2007 out of a Gay Outdoor Club group, now more than 100 members from their 20s to their 60s with an equal gender balance. The fixed meet is every Thursday at the Castle Climbing Centre, gathering from 7pm, about 15 people, then the Brownswood pub. Not a teaching club: you need to climb and belay already. Full membership £35.49 for 2026, and you can climb as a prospective member for up to three months first.
North · Thu, Sun · Beginners
A gay climbing group that exists only on Instagram, known here from one verified event: its annual Pride Social at Rise Climbing on Saturday 27 June 2026, £16 standard and £12 concession. Its regular socials are unconfirmed.
A venue-run social rather than a club: City Bouldering Stratford hosts a Queer Climbers Social every Friday, 7pm to 8pm, for boulderers of all levels, run by LGBTQIA+ team members when possible. £9.50 for non-members with shoes included, free for members.
East · Fri · Beginners
Two qualified Lambeth Tour Guides walking the borough's queer history: Brixton's heroes and villains, Vauxhall, Kennington's pride and protests, a Clapham Valentine's walk. Clare marched against Clause 28 and sat on the Pride organising committee; Adrian has lived the area's gay life for 35 years. £15 a walk.
Beginners
Running since 1994, with around a hundred member-led events a year since 1998, and the club says its membership grew to around 350 with almost equal numbers of men and women. £14 a year, £20 joint, £8 concession, by standing order from 1 August and pro rata by quarter mid-year. The dated calendar goes to members; the public 2026 list shows the South East months.
The London group of GOC, the national LGBTQI+ outdoors charity founded on 9 July 1974. Around 475 members, at least one walk a month, generally the third Saturday, with extra first-Saturday walks in summer and some shorter midweek ones. Every walk starts and finishes at a railway station and ends with tea and cake or a beer. Membership from £8.50 a year, and you need it to see the meeting points.
Sat · Beginners
Traces itself to the first walk for gay men and women in March 1972; the club as it exists now dates from December 1997. At least two walks a month, a half-day walk of 3 to 6 miles in a green part of Greater London and a full-day walk of 7 to 12 miles within about an hour's train ride, on Saturdays as well as Sundays. £12 a year, any age, and the meeting details come by email.
Free · Beginners
A charity running over 1,500 events a year for the gay, bi and trans community across the UK. Registering is free and puts two £12.50 coupons on your account, enough for two day walks; after that a day walk is £12.50 pay as you go or free with full membership at £65 a year. In London the fixture is weekly bouldering, Thursday evenings in Bermondsey and Saturday mornings in central London, with no event fee.
Thu, Sat, Sun · Free · Beginners
A free monthly walk inside London run by the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre on Hopton Street, usually the first Sunday. This year's routes have included the River Lea, Richmond Park and Epping Forest. The route and meeting spot arrive by Eventbrite email nearer the time, and the walk sets off no more than ten minutes after the start. Open to all.
Sun · Free · Beginners
Public walking tours of queer London by Nick Collinson, a City of London Guide who specialises in queer history: Soho's sex, scandal and subculture one month, Bloomsbury's art, affairs and arrests after dark the next. £25 a walk, booked on his site, with private walks for groups.
Beginners
An award-winning Shorinji Kempo club in Camden, a Japanese martial art of self-defence, throws, meditation and philosophy taught step by step, with an LGBTQIA+ community at its heart and most members starting with no martial arts at all. Thursday and Sunday evenings, two hours each, and a twenty-day free trial of unlimited classes to begin.
Thu, Sun · Beginners
The world's first gay cricket club, founded in 1996 and playing since: two Sunday sides most weeks from April to September in the Chess Valley League and friendlies, winter nets at Lord's and the Oval, a home ground in Broxbourne, and tours. New players of any experience are asked for every season. £91 to play for the year, £35 to support, match fees £6 to £10.
Sun, Mon · Beginners
A non-profit boxing club for London's LGBTQ+ community and friends, England Boxing affiliated, nearly a thousand classes on OutSavvy since 2021. Bags and pads, no fighting unless you choose to spar. Everyone starts with Round One, a monthly beginners' taster at Sobell in Finsbury Park; then Monday in Covent Garden, Thursday and Saturday at Sobell. Pay what you can, a pub after most classes.
North · Sat, Mon, Thu · Beginners
The UK's LGBTQ-inclusive rowing club, going since 2014 at the Royal Docks, with nearly a hundred people on the water on a weekend and a regatta most months. The way in is Otterpups, a six-weekend learn-to-row course for complete beginners, £300, up to three times a year; places go in under a minute, so you register interest first.
East · Sat · Beginners
The UK's first LGBTQ+ hockey club and the largest, men's, women's and mixed teams in the London leagues, training at John Orwell Sports Centre in Wapping. The door for a newcomer is the monthly mixed Sunday session for people new to hockey or coming back to it; the first two are free. League teams train Tuesdays and Thursdays in alternate months.
East · Sun · Beginners
London's longest-running and biggest gay men's volleyball club, going since 1995, with coached league teams from September to April, weekly pay-as-you-go open sessions for beginners up, Sunday social sets and a pub after, and free park volleyball on summer Sundays. Players from more than forty countries, predominantly gay but not only.
Sun · Free · Beginners
An LGBTQ+ and ally tennis community in Finsbury Park, started in 2022 with the Access to Sports Project and now Out For Sport's Emerging Club of the Year: four coaching and social doubles sessions a week, all year, with beginner coaching on Thursdays. About £4 to £5 a session, booked through Spond. Over a thousand people on its Meetup.
North · Thu, Sun, Mon, Wed · Beginners
An LGBTQIA+ squash group thirty years old, five social sessions a week at central London leisure centres for every level from complete beginner up, with a pub or brunch after each. First session free, rackets to borrow, bookings opened weekly on WhatsApp. £30 a year to be a member, £2.50 more a session if you are not.
Central · Wed, Thu, Sat, Sun · Beginners
The netball club for queer people of all genders and abilities, started in 2021 by a London Frontrunner who found there was none: monthly beginner-friendly Saturday afternoon sessions at venues around London, coaching for stronger players, tournaments abroad, and England Netball's inclusion award. The first two sessions are free, then £5 a time or £30 a year.
Sat · Beginners
Mixed-voice LGBT+ chamber choir of around 50, Bach and Rachmaninov to ABBA and Sondheim, rehearsing on Wednesday nights in the City of London. A simple audition arranged by email, and the choir says it is recruiting. A new musical director takes over in September 2026 after Jan Rautio's ten years.
Central · Wed · Beginners
A 60-piece all-genders community choir, founded in 2017, with no auditions, no sheet music and no gendered voice parts.
A twenty-piece jazz orchestra founded in summer 2011, mostly but not only LGBT players and singers, Britain's Got Talent semi-finalists in 2014. It publishes no rehearsal night, vacancies or audition process, so joining starts with an email.
Began in 1991 with nine friends singing carols at Angel tube for the Terrence Higgins Trust, now over 300 singing and non-singing members and Europe's largest gay male chorus. Four parts, no audition, Monday nights in Camden plus one weekend day a month. The catch is the queue: one year for first tenors, six for baritones.
North · Mon · Beginners
The LGSO's sister band: around 50 woodwind, brass and percussion players, professionals to lapsed school players, based in central London. Wind band classics through show tunes and video game music to disco, three big concerts a year plus bandstands and the Pride march. No formal audition, a suggested minimum of around Grade 5, and vacancies listed in every section.
Central · Beginners
Founded in 1996 by a group of friends led by Robin Gordon-Powell, over 100 active members and five concerts a year. No auditions, but the bar is Grade 8 for wind and brass and Grade 7 with orchestral experience for strings. Wind and brass are generally full, so strings and the deps list are the realistic way in. £40 per concert.
Central · Sun · Beginners
Founded in 2017 by voice coach Stephen Davidson, London's first choir for trans, non-binary, intersex and gender non-conforming singers. You sing in whatever register or part fits, there is no audition, and nobody asks you to prove anything. Every other Sunday morning near Warren Street, with new members joining in January and September.
North · Sun · Beginners
Formed in 1983 for the Lesbian and Gay Pride march, Europe's longest-running LGBT+ choir by its own account, now 90 singers aged 18 to 75 plus. Mixed voices, madrigals to gospel to show tunes, all memorised. Every Sunday afternoon in central London, an audition with nothing to prepare, and two full concerts a year.
Central · Sun · Beginners
London's LGBTQ+ chamber choir for advanced singers, founded in September 2013. Around 50 members, half former choral scholars or professionals, about 36 on stage per concert. A cappella, medieval to contemporary, with commissions from gay composers. Thursday evenings in Lambeth, a proper audition, and membership by voluntary donation.
South · Thu · Beginners
Badge-making drop-ins out of reused books and magazines, three times a week across London: Sundays at The Common Press in Dalston and first Saturdays at QueerSwap Studio in Vauxhall, pay what you like, and Fridays in Pimlico, free. Open to everyone and run for people who are LGBTQ+, disabled, neurodivergent or short of money. Over 150 sessions since 2023.
North · Sun, Sat, Fri · Free · Beginners
A scrapbooking and zine-making workshop on the first Tuesday of the month at Dalston Superstore, run by ManosQueer, a trans and non-binary owned print studio that works in lino and hand-drawn prints. Pay what you can, up to £10, materials in the room. Running since May 2026.
East · Tue · Beginners
An LGBTQ+ led arts, health and social action charity with its own space on the Greenwich Peninsula: workshops, talks, a programme of exhibitions and, from October 2026, a Queer Community Library open through autumn and winter to read, listen and meet in. Most of the public events are free.
South · Beginners
A roughly monthly book club in New Cross that reads around gender, race, Palestine, disability and spirituality. Run by Kaz, open to anyone, with queer, trans, disabled and BIPOC voices put first. £5 to £12 a session at Corner New Cross.
South · Beginners
A book club, writing and craft workshops and socials for queer creative people, most of them free or pay what you can, at ARC Collective in east London. One of OutSavvy's top organisers: 37 events since 2024 and nearly two thousand attendees. Recent reads: Ocean Vuong, Paul Mendez, Arundhati Roy.
Tue · Free · Beginners
London's gay book club: a relaxed monthly social for readers at The Railway in Clapham, with Meet the Author evenings when the month's writer comes in (Phil Melanson for Florenzer in November) and a Nonfiction Night in December. Sign-up is through Instagram.
South · Tue · Beginners
A monthly book club for queer people from the Global Majority, reading mostly queer writers of colour: Hijab Butch Blues, Cemetery Boys, Rosewater. First Wednesday-ish of the month at Housmans Bookshop in King's Cross, 7pm, free. Thirty-three sessions since 2024.
North · Wed · Free · Beginners
A fortnightly LGBTQ+ board games night in east London, now at Freaks and Geeks in Stratford: £3 on the door, no experience needed, and people come alone as often as in groups.
East · Wed · Beginners
Chess For All runs a Queer Chess Club on a Thursday evening at The Common Press in Dalston and a Saturday afternoon at the London LGBTQ+ Community Centre, roughly monthly, priced by what you earn: £3 unwaged, £6 waged, £12 high waged. Beginners are the point.
Thu, Sat · Beginners
Tim Benzie's interactive screening of a Murder, She Wrote episode at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern: a whodunit poll, a Cabot Cove quiz, clips of the campy guest stars and Angela Lansbury on the big screen. Running since 2018 and one of Time Out's fifty great London nights. £12 to £16, a new episode every month or two.
South · Thu · Beginners
Michael Twaits's ten-week drag course at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern: Monday evenings, 7.30 to 9.30, building a character and a solo routine through masterclasses in hosting, lip-sync, comedy and the business of cabaret, then a graduation showcase on the RVT stage. Running since at least 2021; the next course starts 18 January 2027, £150 to £350.
South · Mon · Beginners
A free, informal creative afternoon for LGBTQ+ people aged fifty and over, every other Thursday at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, 2.30 to 4.30, run by Bijou Stories, the queer history and wellbeing project behind Any Old Iron. Try a creative activity or sit with a cup of tea. Fifty-two events on OutSavvy since 2021.
South · Thu · Free · Beginners
Gay men's social events built around doing something: board games at Draughts, a Surrey Hills hike, a supper club, cooking, climbing, canoeing, life drawing, pottery, a Sunday yoga club and a strength class, most of them at The Ministry in Borough, most of them £5 to £20. The pitch on every page is the same: meet gay men, make friends, outside of apps and bars. Tickets on their own site.
Sun · Beginners
The UK's queer Muslim charity, volunteer-led since 2017 and secular in its running: a members' Discord, mentoring, a queer book club that meets in person a few times a year, seasonal walks in London, and theatre trips. Membership is the way in; events are £8 to £12 or free.
Free · Beginners
Line dancing for queers, allies and country lovers: a monthly Monday night at Walthamstow Trades Hall where two blocks of lessons from 7.30pm open up a floor that runs from Dolly Parton to Chappell Roan, and Baby Steps, a ten-class beginners' course on Sunday evenings at Betty and Joan's in Walworth with STRUT. Nearly three thousand people through the door since 2025.
East · Mon, Sun · Beginners
Club Soda's alcohol-free queer night, every third Thursday at its Tasting Room on Drury Lane: a bar of alcohol-free beers, wines and cocktails, small plates from next door, a quieter speakeasy downstairs, and a sharing circle from seven for anyone changing their drinking. Free; most people come alone and are introduced to others.
Central · Thu · Free · Beginners
Where the listings give you the facts, the guides tell you which club suits you and why.
New clubs, changed training nights, and the occasional weekend. No more than that.
A weekend away with a group of gay men, and nothing to prove.