Gay things to do in north London

11 clubs and groups in north london, with training nights, fees and the beginner route into each.

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

Badminton

Goslings London Badminton Club

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

Swimming

Hampstead Heath bathing ponds

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

Seahorses

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

Climbing

Not So Trad

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

Other sport

Knockout LGBTQ+ Boxing

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

North London Lob-sters

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

Choirs and bands

London Gay Men's Chorus

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

London Trans Choir

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

Arts and crafts

Badge Cafe

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

Books

The Melanated Queers Reading Collective

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

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