In London, I’m a flaneur, admiring the marquees of various West End theater productions, peering into bookshops, and happening upon queer bars and pubs. I love meeting up with friends in the United Kingdom’s capital city for a pint or a show, and I once visited with a girlfriend who was from Brighton, England. Discovering London, whether solo or with someone else, is an activity I’ve romanticized. I imagine my younger self immersed in the National Theatre or the British Film Institute on the South Bank or dancing at Heaven, where queer ’80s musicians from Erasure, Soft Cell, and Bronski Beat once convened. I’ve visited this international city more than any other — six times now over decades. In 2025 alone, I wandered the banks of the Thames during two different seasons.
London BridgeTracy E. Gilchrist
Last summer, I tacked on a three-day sojourn on my way home to Los Angeles from Stockholm Pride (and a Swedish fling). I flew into Heathrow in August to loll at the Corinthia London luxury hotel and decompress. As a queer person, traveling outside of the United States gave me a sense of calm I hadn’t felt since the 2024 election, and I was not eager for that to end.
Since I’d gone viral for “holding space” with Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande several months prior, the staff at Corinthia greeted me by name upon arrival, as if I were a celebrity. Though I heard that I missed an actual celebrity, Mariah Carey, by mere hours that day. That afternoon, beneath a chandelier with 1,001 Baccarat crystals, I was greeted by the hotel’s general manager, Charlotte Weatherall, a history-making queer woman who is the first female GM of a luxury hotel in the city.
Tracy E. Gilchrist in BathTracy E. Gilchrist
There, in my deluxe junior suite, I enjoyed a sitting room, a tub that could accommodate several people, a walk-in rain shower I never wanted to leave, and an inviting king-sized bed, where I fell in for a nap before a long stroll to the South Bank and back over the bridge to Covent Garden.
Each morning, I dined downstairs at Kerridge’s Bar & Grill, which offered plenty of vegetarian/vegan options. Following a day out with an old friend visiting Carnaby Street (though it’s no longer the singular mod spot featured in films like Blow-Up), we caught up over dinner at Corinthia’s alfresco restaurant, The Garden. A short walk away from Corinthia, we hit up the Hadestown production in the West End for a steal at about £32 per ticket.
The Corinthia London HotelTracy E. Gilchrist
For my final full day at Corinthia, I visited the multifloor spa, Biome, where I lounged in the hotel’s lush terry robe on a heated marble chaise before desultorily swimming a few laps in a heated pool. That night, I crossed the street to the Kit Kat Club for an immersive experience seeing Cabaret. I’d planned to head straight to the airport the next day, but one more artistic event awaited me. I’d seen a sign for an exhibit on the queer performance artist Leigh Bowery (who inspired the musical Taboo), so I rushed to the Tate Modern to learn more about his life, career, and death from AIDS before heading home.
Just over four months later, I returned to London with Netflix to interview the Bridgerton cast at London’s funky Ham Yard Hotel, although we stayed at the Radisson Blu in Leicester Square, where I watched the ice skaters in the Christmas market from my room. For the full Bridgerton experience, we enjoyed high tea at another of London’s five-star hotels, The Langham in Marylebone. A day trip to Bath, rolling along the English countryside, included a tour of Bridgerton locations and warm mulled wine from the massive holiday fair there.
Hyde London CityTracy E. Gilchrist
Since I’d flown 11 hours to England, I opted to make the most of it and stayed on for two more nights at Hyde London City near Mayfair, Kensington, and Knightsbridge, though I did not go on this part of the trip alone. My Swedish friend from the summer joined me for two days of romance at the boutique hotel located in the Victorian-era Spiers & Pond building with a view of Holy Sepulchre Church from the bohemian-inspired room.
From the hotel, we ventured through the city over London Bridge to the famed Borough Market, where we grabbed halloumi wraps and strolled the Thames on a chilly December day before eventually ending up back in the West End to peruse the shows that were playing. That evening, Hyde London City’s Turkish restaurant, Leydi, hosted us for dinner (the hummus with chilli butter is still on my mind).
My most recent trip to England’s premier city took me to a neighborhood new to me, but a seven-mile stroll with a paramour landed me back in the spot another queer ’80s group, the Pet Shop Boys, sang about. I guess I’m forever a “West End Girl.”
The Corinthia London and Hyde London City provided lodgings to this writer.
This article is part of OUT’s Mar-Apr 2026 print issue, now on newsstands. Support queer media and subscribe — or download the issue through Apple News+, Zinio, Nook, or PressReader.
