London council saves gay fetish club from redevelopment

Backstreet Bar

The UK’s last remaining strict leather and rubber fetish gay club has been saved after a London council blocked plans to redevelop the East End site into a 12-storey residential tower.

Tower Hamlets ruled against the proposed 46-flat development on Mile End Road because it would “harm the long-term provision of a nightclub that serves the LGBT+ community”.

“It is the last true gay fetish club, and diversity matters to us,” she said. “This kind of venue really matters to us, it matters to Tower Hamlets and to the whole of London. It is very important to have safe spaces for the whole community.”

Dozens of men who regularly visit the Backstreet, which boasts the “strictest fetish dress code in Europe”, wrote to the council during the six-year planning battle to explain the importance of the club to them.

“When I discovered the fetish scene by going to the Backstreet as an 18-year-old, it saved my life,” one man wrote. “It gave me a community that made me feel welcome, and embraced me flaws and all. It stopped me thinking I was odd or an outsider, [it] gave me confidence in myself, and gave me some incredible friends and mentors.”