Shoreditch Town Hall recently celebrated its 160th anniversary by putting LGBTQ+ performers centre stage, reaffirming itself as a home for queer creativity and emerging talent.
Sixteen performers took to the stage for an evening of drag, cabaret, music, dance and comedy, bringing together contemporary queer performance artists.
The line-up featured established performers and collectives, including Travis Alabanza, Pecs Drag Kings and The Cocoa Butter Club.
Every performer had previously appeared at the venue or developed work there, bringing established names and emerging artists together under one roof.
Ellie Browning, the venue’s head of cultural programming, said: “In a way, it’s easy to programme really, really good queer cabaret artists, but it’s more of a challenge to go, ‘Okay, but who have we worked with before?’
“That makes me really proud because it’s a really great programme.”
She added that the event celebrated both the building’s history and the artists who have helped shape its cultural identity.
Shoreditch Town Hall was originally built as a civic space for the local community, but its history stretches beyond council business.
In the late 19th century, the building became a music-hall venue, hosting comedy, songs, dancing and speciality acts.
Browning said the anniversary programme drew on that tradition, bringing the unpredictability of variety entertainment into a contemporary queer setting.
She said: “It’s a really wild mix, with something sombre followed by something outrageous.”
The building became a boxing venue in the 1960s, before falling into disrepair in the following decades.
In the 1990s, it found a brief new lease of life hosting the Whirl-Y-Gig club nights.
After a campaign to save the building, Shoreditch Town Hall Trust took over the lease in 2002, and the venue reopened as a community and events space in 2004.
In 2012, it began a new chapter as an arts and live events venue.
For Browning, queer performance brings a particular sense of community to the building.
Pecs Drag Kings and The Cocoa Butter Club, both of which have performed at the venue several times, were among the examples she gave of artists whose events foster a strong sense of belonging.
She said: “What they bring is such a special sense of inclusivity and togetherness.
“You can come to those nights by yourself, and not feel like you’re by yourself.”
The venue also offered free tickets to LGBTQ+ charities it has worked with, including AKT (formerly the Albert Kennedy Trust), which supports LGBTQ+ young people facing homelessness, and Mosaic, which works with young people.
Browning said practical changes, including gendered toilets and a rainbow sticker on the venue’s front doors, were intended to make its commitment to LGBTQ+ audiences more visible.
She said: “I think just it feeling like a place of refuge for artists, but also for audiences, is really important.”
Supporting emerging performers is another priority.
Through its Summer in the Ditch programme, the venue helps early-stage and mid-career artists develop their work, offering space, technical assistance and producing support.
Browning said: “If we want to continue to programme brilliant queer work in the Assembly Hall, which has 750 seats, then we have to be supporting the development of that earlier stage.”
She added: “We’re not just programming plays about lived experience, we’re programming the art itself and the work of these artists.”
The venue is also planning monthly queer family story times for children aged two to six in early 2027, following a community grant from Hackney Council.
Browning hopes Shoreditch Town Hall will continue to offer queer artists a space to experiment, develop their work and reach new audiences.
Featured image credit: Von Dyke Studio
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