The Grand Dame of Old Compton Street, Comptons bar is an ever-busy drinking den with a bar downstairs and a lounge upstairs. Great music with live DJs at the weekend, and they often show live rugby/football matches. In the summer guys hang around outside chatting with their pint of beer in hand. the towering Comptons of Soho, which stands bold on Old Compton Street.

Although Comptons Of Soho had a gay following for several decades during the 20th century, the bar came out and proud with its queer identity in 1986 and championed the modern age of homosexualist Soho.

Some facts about the history of Comptons of Soho gay bar:

• Compton’s pub, previously the Swiss Hotel, takes its name from the street that’s named after Bishop Compton, son of the Earl of Northampton, whose diocese this area encompassed.
• Behind Compton’s are buried 100,000 plague victims.
• “SO HO” is a hunting call and this area was originally Henry Vlll’s hunting park.
• In 1942 the Landlord of the Swiss Hotel was warned by the metropolitan police not to allow sodomites or sodomy on the premises.
• They were the first gay bar to start the outside drinking culture in Soho with tables and chairs, making a statement “we are here, loud and proud!”